The Curious Affair in Central City
by chissprincess
Summary: When Isabelle becomes the newest State Alchemist, she gets more than she bargained for: a hard time fitting in, the tough job of helping the Elrics with their research, and a mysterious man named William...AU, some OOCness. EnvyOC, hints of RoyRiza
1. Chapter 1

**The Curious Affair in Central City**

**Summary:** When Isabelle becomes the newest State Alchemist, she gets more than she bargained for: a hard time fitting in, the tough job of helping the Elrics with their research, and a mysterious man named William…AU, some OOC-ness. Envy/OC, hints of Roy/Riza

**Rating:** T, just to be safe. There's not much in this chapter to warrant it, but there's swearing and violence later on.

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing. Well, I suppose I own Isabelle, but chances are nobody cares about that. Please don't sue me!

It's my first FMA fanfic and the first fanfic I've ever posted anywhere, so please be nice! puppy eyes at readers

**Chapter 1**

She dropped her travel bags on the sidewalk beside her and took another step towards the closed iron gates before her, reaching out to slowly wrap her gloved hands around the cold bars. A chilly breeze stirred the autumn air around her, blowing some fallen leaves around her ankles and loosening a few more strands of her long brown hair from her poor attempt at a bun. But she didn't really notice any of that as she stared through the bars, mouth open slightly, at the building before her. _This is it…I'm actually here._

At twenty-two, Isabelle Chamberlain was hardly the youngest person to come through these gates as a newly-minted State Alchemist. She was one of the first women to do so, though. And, as far as anyone could tell, she was the first to be conducting research on human transmutation (apparently the famed Fullmetal Alchemist's research fell under another category, though she didn't know why). Really, aside from her research, she was hardly a spectacular alchemist. But the research had been more than enough to catch the interest of her examiners, and apparently it had also been enough to let her become the only person to pass the exams this year. That had been in February. After passing her exams, she had gone back to her home on Amestris' southernmost boarder to finish her old job, pack her things, and say goodbye to her family. The government had graciously granted her until October to do so. And now, here she was, back in Central City to take up her appointment.

Turning from the gate, she bent and rummaged around in one of her bags until she found the envelope she was looking for. A folded letter was tucked neatly inside, as though Isabelle hadn't read it until now (though she had indeed read it many times since its arrival that summer). She opened it and skimmed it quickly, dark brown eyes flying over the words until she found what she was looking for. The name of her new commanding officer -- Colonel Roy Mustang. _Right then. I know who I'm going to talk to, now how do I get into this place?_

She had barely finished the thought when she heard footsteps behind her. Turning, letter still clutched in her right hand, Isabelle studied the man approaching the other side of the gate. Taller than she was (though as she was only 5'2", that wasn't a surprise), with somewhat messy blonde hair and a cigarette perched between his lips, he struck her even now as being rather laid-back about pretty much everything. He grinned at her and leaned casually against the gate, eyeing her with piercing blue eyes.

"So, you're the new girl, huh?" Isabelle nodded, refolding her letter and tucking it carefully into the pocket of her long coat. "Good. The Colonel's waiting for you," he continued as he unlocked the gate and swung one half of it open. Isabelle collected her bags and stepped past the man, then waited patiently for him to close the gate and walk ahead of her. He did, taking her bags from her as he went. "I'm Jean Havoc, by the way. Second Lieutenant under the Colonel."

"Pleased to meet you, Lieutenant," she replied as calmly as she could manage. Which, unfortunately, wasn't all that calmly at all. The closer they got to the Colonel's office, the more nervous she got. She had always been rather self-conscious -- being alternately picked on or ignored because of her lack of height and overabundance of weight for most of her life had been too much for her self-esteem -- and hated the thought that people might be watching her. It didn't matter why they might be watching, just that watching was taking place. Fortunately, no one was around, and she was able to relax a little (but only a little).

Isabelle followed Havoc up a few flights of stairs, down a maze of hallways, until they arrived at a door at the end of a long hallway. Just before they arrived, the door opened and a shorter, younger man emerged, peering at them through a pair of square glasses.

"Ah, Fuery! Here, take her bags…and her coat too…you're living in the dorms here, right? Good then, Fuery will take your bags to your room, and I'll introduce you to the Colonel. Oh, right…This is Master Sergeant Kain Fuery, and this is…er…I didn't get your name earlier."

Isabelle blushed a bit at her mistake. "Sorry. I'm Isabelle Chamberlain. I suppose I'm a Major…that's what my letter said anyway."

"You're a new State Alchemist?" Fuery asked, taking her bags from Havoc but watching her closely. He set one bag down just long enough to take her coat and drape it comfortably over his left arm.

"Yep. Just passed in February," she answered, a hint of pride in her voice.

"Ah, congratulations!" Fuery exclaimed, beaming at her. "And welcome to Headquarters…I'll go put these away for you, it's not a good idea to keep the Colonel waiting." With that, he was gone, and Isabelle turned to follow Havoc through the door.

Or rather, she was about to, when suddenly a shout erupted from the other side of the door. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN ULTRA-TINY CHIBI WHO COULDN'T BE SEEN WITH THE MOST POWERFUL MAGNIFYING GLASS IF HE WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU?!?!?"

Isabelle's eyes widened. "Wha…?"

"Sounds like Fullmetal's back," Havoc said dryly. At a confused look from Isabelle, he explained, "The Fullmetal Alchemist. He's…well…the Colonel likes to make fun of his height. And Fullmetal tends to over-react."

"I see," she replied. "And why does the Colonel make fun of him?"

Havoc shrugged. "Because he thinks it's funny? Come on, he's waiting for you." With that, Havoc opened the door to the room and stepped in side, Isabelle at his heels.

"Colonel! The new State Alchemist is here!"

Isabelle took a quick look around the large office. To her left, two men stood behind a black leather couch. The taller of the two had graying hair, while the other had reddish hair and a stockier build. Standing in front of the couch and looking ready to pounce on anything that came near him was a teenager with a thick blonde braid, golden eyes narrowed menacingly at the room's fourth occupant. That was the young-looking man behind the desk, studying the blonde teenager with his blue-black eyes. Beside him, to the desk's right, stood a blonde-haired woman, who was shaking her head in exasperation. A medium-sized, black-and-white dog was dozing in front of the desk. And finally, on the couch to the right, sat…was that really a suit of armor? Before she could really think about that, though, the man behind the desk spoke.

"You're Chamberlain, then?"

She snapped to attention. "Yes sir!"

He studied her in silence for a moment, then sat up a bit straighter and opened his desk drawer. From it he pulled a thin file and a silver pocket watch. He handed the watch to the woman beside him, who in turn stepped around the desk and handed it to Isabelle. Opening the file, he said, "Major Isabelle Chamberlain, second name the Shadow Alchemist. Welcome to the branch. I'm Colonel Roy Mustang, your direct superior here. Incidentally, you have your first assignment…that is, if you think you'll be able to handle it." At that, he glanced up at her through his black bangs, which were hanging over his eyes due to the angle at which he held his head.

_What does he mean by that? "_I'll do my best, sir," she replied calmly.

"Good, then. You're going to be helping Fullmetal here with his quest to find the Philosopher's stone. I trust you and your research are up to the task." She nodded firmly and tucked her watch into a pocket on her uniform. "Oh, and how long do you plan on being here?" he asked, studying her closely once again.

Isabelle frowned. "Until they transfer me, I suppose."

Mustang nodded. "And when will that be? Soon, I expect."

"Why would you say that?" she asked, frowning even more. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the blonde teenager frowning in confusion as well.

"Well, you look about ready to burst," Mustang replied, waving a white-gloved hand at her torso. "You must be due within a month."

Isabelle took a step back, eyes widening in shock and fury. She spluttered for a moment, then ground out, "And why the hell do you think I'm pregnant, _sir_?"

The Colonel raised an eyebrow. "So you're not? I see." He turned back to the papers on his desk, then, but Isabelle didn't move. She just stood there, hands opening and closing, shaking with anger. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Of course."

"When are _you_ due?"

"I…beg your pardon?" That had gotten his attention. He was looking right at her now, and it was obviously his turn to be confused.

"Well, sir, Lieutenant Havoc here told me you like to tease the Fullmetal Alchemist about his height, and you just made a very rude comment about my weight. I was always taught that you should never assume a woman is pregnant unless she was actually giving birth right in front of you, and that it's unacceptable to comment on a woman's weight. So I'd like to know when you expect your manners to arrive, because it seems to me that you're sorely overdue for their delivery."

The silence in the room positively crackled from the tension, but she kept her eyes locked on the Colonel's. His eyes had grown huge now, and he opened and closed his mouth in shock a few times. The woman beside him was giving him an annoyed look, while the teenager was grinning broadly at Isabelle. The shorter of the two men behind the couch coughed, while his taller companion shook his head in despair. Even the dog looked up, studying her quizzically.

"I can't believe you just said that to the Colonel," Havoc murmured.

"Well, he _did_ give me permission to speak freely," she replied dryly.

Mustang's confused look settled abruptly into a frown, "Yes, and don't expect me to do it again. You're dismissed. Go with her, Fullmetal."

Isabelle saluted before turning and stalking out of the room. She was so furious she barely noticed who was following her until she had gotten a good distance down the hall and suddenly realized she had no clue where to go. She stopped and glanced around, before turning and noticing the people behind her. She had to glance down a bit to make eye contact with the blonde teenager, then had to crane her neck to look up at the suit of armor. "Umm…"

"So, you're going to help us out, huh?" the shorter one replied. He held out his right hand to her. "I'm Ed. Edward Elric, and this is my brother Alphonse. We all just call him

Al though."

She shook Ed's hand. "Like I said back there, I'm Isabelle." She frowned a bit, looking down at Ed's gloved hand and pulling it closer. She stared at it for a second before reaching over and pushing his sleeve up just far enough to see a bit of his arm. "Automail," she murmured. Dropping his hand, Isabelle turned her attention to the suit of armor, narrowing her eyes and taking a step closer. Al raised his hands as though to ward her off, but she reached up anyway and rapped sharply on his torso. Her knuckles made a hollow sound against the metal, not what she would have expected from an occupied suit of armor. She took a couple of steps back and crossed her arms, studying the boys. "Ok, you two, talk."

"What do you mean?" Ed asked sharply.

She snorted. "It's all rather obvious to me, really. The automail…the empty suit of armor…your quest for the Philosopher's Stone…" her expression softened a bit. "So who were you trying to transmute? And when?"

Ed and Al exchange a surprised look. They were used to people figuring out what they had done by now, but it usually took a little while for it to happen. But this Isabelle had figured it out so quickly. "How did you…?"

She glanced around quickly, then said, "Oh, I know all about human transmutation. It's what I research, you know."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes**: Yep, an update already. Why? Because I love it when the stories I'm watching get updated quickly, and also because after this weekend I won't be able to update as much. So better do it while I can What else…Oh yeah. Those of you who haven't gotten very far in the anime yet might want to skip this, because there are spoilers for how Homunuculi and the Philosopher's Stone are created. Otherwise, all is good so far. PLEASE read and review!

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**Chapter 2**

"WHAT??" Ed shouted, taking a step back. Just who had Mustang assigned him as a research assistant here?

"Shh, not so loud!" Isabelle scolded, glaring at him. "I've never actually _performed_ a human transmutation, but I've been trying to perfect a new theory for it. You know, make it actually work instead of just creating Homunculi, and make it safer so what happened to you and your brother doesn't happen again. But…so far…well, I've learned a lot, but my theory is far from perfect."

"So you're going to help us, which will also be good for your research?" Al asked.

"Seems like it, anyway," Isabelle replied. "Maybe three people will have better luck finding something than just one or two. Now, where's the cafeteria around here, I'm starving."

Ed pointed down a hallway and turned, heading down the hallway with his brother and the new recruit following him. They arrived at the cafeteria on the building's lower floor a short time later, and Al went to save them a table while Isabelle and Ed got food. After they returned to the table, the two ate in silence for several minutes, avoiding each other's gazes, while Al watched them nervously. Finally, Ed looked up and cleared his throat.

"So…if you've never done a human transmutation…what exactly do you do?"

Isabelle took a sip of water and pondered the question for a moment. "Well, I'm trying to perfect the theory. I mean, current human transmutation theory doesn't exactly make much sense, you know? You can have the person doing the transmutation completely vanish from the world, lose both their body and soul, and the transmutation will still fail. And yet, even a failed human transmutation results in something, right?"

"A Homunculus," Ed murmured, looking down and balling his right hand into a fist.

"Exactly," Isabelle replied. "That tells me that the old theory is on the right track, but not completely there."

Al leaned forward a bit. "But why would it fail? According to the Law of Equivalent Exchange, if you give a full life during the transmutation you should be able to get a full life back…"

"I don't know yet," she said sadly. "That's why I'm just researching now. I don't want to risk hurting someone else if I'm wrong about anything."

Ed looked up at her. "Is this why you became a State Alchemist, then?"

"Yep. They have some of the best libraries, and the funding is incredible."

"You must have read things about the Philosopher's Stone then!" Al exclaimed.

"Yep. I don't think it's what you're looking for, really." She said. At Ed's questioning look, she continued, "Creating a proper Philosopher's Stone requires sacrificing human lives -- lots of them. Thousands even." Isabelle sighed and shook her head when she saw the pained look on Ed's face. A few more strands of her dark hair worked themselves loose from the bun they had been in, and she reached back to adjust her hair. "You'd pinned all your hopes on that, hadn't you?" Ed just nodded, too busy trying not to over-react to the news. "I'm sorry, Ed," she said softly. "I was pretty upset too when I first found out. But think of it this way…now you can turn your energy towards finding a real solution."

"Is…is there such a thing?" he whispered.

Isabelle nodded forcefully. "Of course there is. We just haven't found it yet. But I think I'm getting closer, and after this weekend I might have a few more answers."

"What do you mean?" Ed asked, glancing up at her through the bangs hanging in his face.

She grinned, reaching into her coat pocket and pulling out a small, lavender-colored envelope. If the official letter about her acceptance as a State Alchemist had been important, this one had been her life all summer. She had carried it with her at all times, terrified that she would lose it, and with it, her one chance to gain the thing promised in the letter. "This is from the International Society for Alchemical Research. They have a huge private library that I've wanted to get into for years, but they usually only let members of the Society or of the Alchemists' Guild in."

"The what and the what?" Ed and Al asked in unison.

"The International Society for Alchemical Research is an organization for people all over the world doing research on alchemy. You don't have to be an alchemist to join, but most members are alchemists. The Alchemists' Guild used to be an honest-to-goodness guild a couple hundred years ago or so, but it's since become a club of sorts for powerful and high-ranking alchemists. There's no chance someone like me could get into either at this point, I haven't been working long enough. But look!" Here she pulled a crisp white sheet of paper from the lavender envelope and handed it to Ed. "They've given me access to the library! My first appointment is this weekend."

"Hey, that's exciting!" Ed exclaimed, eyes flying over the paper. "I never even knew about this….hey, Al, maybe we should try to get in too!"

"It can't hurt to try, Nii-san!" Al replied, leaning over Ed's shoulder to read as well.

Isabelle cleared her throat. "You better start lobbying for access now then. It took me months to get that."

Ed nodded. "We'll do that. Thank you, Isabelle."


	3. Chapter 3

**Just a reminder**…I own nothing, so no suing me.

Sorry I haven't posted for a couple of days. I've been having technical issues. They should be fixed now, as should be the problem I had formating the last two chapters. You should now be able to tell when I'm shiftin from one section to another (I've stuck a line of ------- between sections).

Oh, and guess who finally shows up in this chapter? Don't forget to review! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter 3**

Isabelle let out a low growl of frustration and shoved a long lock of hair behind her ear, where it promptly worked itself free the moment she moved her head again. Things weren't going too well for her at the library of the International Society for Alchemical Research. So far, every book the librarians had allowed her to look at was something she could have just as easily gotten at any of the State libraries, or even in some of the country's normal public libraries. There had been one book that looked useful, but it wasn't in a language she knew, and no one could (or would) translate it for her, so that was no good.

Finally, she stood and stretched her aching back, glaring at the bookshelf before her. She turned to the stuffy older woman beside her and said, "I'm sorry, but this isn't going to help me either. I've read all of those," here she pointed to one shelf, "and all of _those_ I can get at the State libraries," she pointed to another shelf. "Can't I see some of your more rare books? You know, the ones that are hard to find anywhere else?"

The woman snorted. "I hardly think so, Miss Chamberlain --"

"_Major_ Chamberlain."

"Major Chamberlain. You're not even a member of the Society or the Guild, and your research is highly…unorthodox. There is no way you can access our restricted collection."

"Then why did you agree to let me come here, if all you were going to let me see was the stuff any random person can find anywhere?" Isabelle asked, struggling to keep her temper under control.

"Had it been up to me, you would most certainly not be here at all," the librarian replied in a barely civilized tone.

Isabelle gave her a stony glare, followed by a sharp nod and a grunt. "Fine then. Looks like I won't be able to find what I came for. I'm leaving. Let me know when you're ready to let me see the really useful stuff." She turned on her heel and stalked off. Or rather, she tried to. As it turned out, she didn't get very far, because at the end of the aisle she walked right into someone else and found herself sprawled on the floor, staring up at the mysterious new person in shock.

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Envy allowed himself a small, tight smile as he listened to the conversation between the two women in the next aisle over. This was perfect. The younger one was just the kind of person he was looking for -- intelligent, focused, determined to get research right. Now, if only he could convince her that his father's library would be useful to her, and that he could be trusted…

Actually, he was pretty sure that neither would be all that difficult. It wasn't like he was walking around in his usual form, after all. At the moment, he was slightly taller and more muscular than usual (though just as graceful and agile). His wild green hair had been tamed into a thick black ponytail, with bangs similar to Edward Elric's. His chosen eye color for the day was a deep emerald green with flecks of gold, which stood out brilliantly against his dark hair and pale skin. Really, he was the very definition of a beautiful man. And everyone around him seemed to know it, too, since people just wouldn't stop staring at him.

As he listened to the conversation, he carefully removed a couple of books from the shelf, which allowed him to see through to the other side. There they were -- the irate girl and the annoyed librarian, giving each other looks that would have scared any normal person to death. But Envy was hardly a normal person, and as he listened to the conversation, he paid attention to the girl's body language, until…yes. She was definitely going to go that way. Replacing the books, Envy slipped down the aisle and prepared to round the bookshelf.

His timing was perfect. "Let me know when you're ready to let me see the really useful stuff," the girl's voice declared. Envy counted to three, then stepped around the bookshelf and into the aisle. Just as he had expected, the girl collided with him. He hadn't planned on her hitting hard enough to fall over, but hey, it added a nice touch didn't it? He got to be all gentlemanly and help her up now.

"Oh, I'm so sorry miss, are you alright?" he asked, sounding as concerned as possible. It wasn't his typical Envy-voice (though of course she didn't know that), but rather a deep, smooth voice, one that he had often heard described as comforting, reassuring, and sexy.

She looked up at him, dark eyes widening in shock and a faint blush appearing on her otherwise pale cheeks. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry I walked into you." She took the hand he offered and climbed to her feet, dusting herself off and throwing a quick glance at him.

"I hope you'll forgive me, but I was in the next aisle over and couldn't help but hearing your argument with the librarian." Envy had to really fight to keep from cringing at the polite words. The things he had to do to get what he wanted…

"Oh…you heard that?" she asked, sounding embarrassed.

Envy nodded solemnly. "What are you trying to find in the restricted section?"

She eyed him suspiciously. "Stuff I need for my research. I mean, they let me in here, and it's not like I'm just any old person coming in off the street, I'm a State Alchemist for crying out loud."

That was a surprise to Envy. Looked like he needed to do a better job of collecting intelligence on his target next time. But still, a State Alchemist…that could be dangerous, sure, but it could also be useful. "You're right, that is strange. But you see, I might be able to help you. My father was an excellent alchemist and he managed to create a good library of some of the older alchemy texts before his death. I might be willing to allow you to see some of them, but only if I know what you're researching. I have to protect myself, you know."

"I don't even know your name, and you want me to tell you my research?" she asked incredulously.

"Of course, how silly of me." Extending his hand to her he said, "I'm William E --" he coughed sharply and continued, "excuse me, William Jones."

"Major Isabelle Chamberlain," she replied, shaking his hand firmly. "Well, I suppose I can tell you a little of what I do…I'm working on perfecting a theory for something. A theory for it already exists, but it's very dangerous. I'm trying to prefect a new, safer theory. And I've pretty much exhausted all of the modern resources."

Envy chuckled. "I see. We have the opposite problem, then. I have exhausted all of the old resources in my father's library, and am in need of more recent texts." He cocked one eyebrow. "Perhaps we could help each other? I too have been trying to perfect a theory. Though, it's purely an academic matter for me. I've never had an interest in actually performing alchemy."

Isabelle nodded. "Maybe. But you have to understand, my research is funded by the State now, and most of it is top-secret. I might not be able to share my findings with you."

He nodded. "I understand. Still, you need those texts, right? I suppose it couldn't hurt for me to let you in to see them. Besides," he added, smiling grimly, "you can help me sort them."

"Er…what?"

"My father had the very bad habit of not organizing his books. And I have the very bad habit of not organizing them either, but really, they need sorting. If you can't pay me by sharing your research, you can pay me buy helping me sort the texts."

Isabelle pondered that for a moment. It seemed reasonable enough, she supposed. "Fine then. But I expect to spend as much time studying as sorting."

"Equivalent exchange," Envy replied, sounding amused. "I would expect no less from a true alchemist." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out one of the small cards he had had made just for this occasion. "This is where I live. Come tomorrow, if you'd like. I'll be there at one to let you in."

She took the card from him and nodded, giving it a quick glance before tucking it into her own pocket. "I'll see you at one tomorrow, then."

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Envy locked the door to the large, ornate house behind him and changed back to his usual form before lighting a nearby lantern and making his way to the stairs. He completely passed the stairs, though, stopping at the apparently blank wall just behind them. He pressed a particular spot on the wall and a section of it popped open, revealing a hidden staircase leading down into a dark passageway. Envy had built this place about two hundred years ago as a way of keeping his father's things where he wouldn't have to see them all the time. The house had also come in handy for making his various alter-egos more believable. He just had to be careful to make sure that only one or two of his identities were supposed to be living there at any given time. But right now the place was a mess, and he needed someone to help him clean it up a bit. He knew just the person, too.

The staircase from his house eventually linked to another passage. Though it was impossible to tell from here, this new passageway was the one leading from the old church in Central City to the underground city, where the other Homunculi made their usual home. Envy followed this passageway until he emerged at the ledge overlooking the city. From there, he made his way to the palace that he and the others called home.

His arrival was uneventful and unnoticed. Nobody paid much attention to the comings and goings of the shape-shifter. After all, he was quite capable of taking care of himself and just got annoyed if he felt like someone was keeping tabs on him. But right now, that was the least of his worries. Right now, he was looking for a specific person. Not that he had too far.

"Wrath."

The younger Homunculus looked up from where he was sprawled on the ballroom floor tormenting a mouse and sneered at him. "Envy."

"Come with me. Now."

Wrath glared at him. "Why should I?"

"Because I told you to, pipsqueak" Envy snarled.

"Make me," Wrath replied, focusing on his mouse once again.

Envy strode to his side, squatted down, grabbed the mouse from him, and tossed it aside before grabbing Wrath's shirt and hauling him to his feet. "Now then, baka, you're going to help me out or I'm going to make life very miserable for you. Now, march." With that, he turned Wrath to face the door and gave him a shove, nearly knocking the smaller being over. Wrath took the hint, and even though he grumbled mutinously the whole way, he marched, Envy right on his heels. When they arrived back at the other house, Envy closed the hidden door behind him and turned to Wrath once more.

"Clean this place up."

Wrath balked. "Do you have any idea how long that will take?"

Envy snorted. "So use alchemy. You need to practice it anyway. Just deconstruct all the dirt and grime. And do be careful, I'd hate to have to punish you for deconstructing something I really wanted to keep." With that, he sauntered from the room, leaving a grumbling but (for the time being) obedient Wrath behind. The last sound he heard was Wrath clapping his hands together in preparation for using his alchemy to clean.


	4. Chapter 4

Yay! Because I feel bad about not getting to post yesterday, and because I'm in a very good mood (two people have added this to their favorites and someone else put it in a C2!), I thought it would be nice to post Chapter 4 tonight. So here it is. Remember, folk, reviews are always welcome. I know the readers are out there, I've seen the stats! Anyway, moving on… 

There's a very small amount of not-so-nice swearing in this chapter, but then, that's why the story is rated T.

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**Chapter 4**

"So wait…you're going to this guy's house to look at his father's library? You don't even know him!"

Isabelle shrugged and took another bite of her salad. Though she didn't really want to admit it to anyone, the Colonel's earlier remarks about her weight had really stung, and had in fact prompted her latest effort at dieting. Too bad she hated salad. "I'll be fine," she said, stabbing a chunk of tomato. "I'm pretty used to taking care of myself."

Ed just frowned at her, golden eyes narrowed in annoyance, while Al shook his head and sighed. Ed's eyes darted to the right, and his head snapped up. "Lieutenant!"

Though she had already made it a few steps past their table, Riza Hawkeye stopped and turned to Ed. "Hello, Fullmetal."

"Lieutenant, you have to talk some sense into Isabelle, she won't listen to us."

Riza raised an eyebrow and approached the trio's table, where she set her lunch tray. "What's the problem?"

"There is no problem, Ed's just being overprotective," Isabelle replied sourly.

"She's going to a man's house to look at his library," Al explained quietly. "But she only just met him yesterday."

Isabelle rolled her eyes. "I've told you, I'll be fine. Chances are there won't be anything useful there anyway, and I'll be out in five minutes."

Riza looked slightly alarmed. "Where did you meet this man?"

"At the library of the International Society for Alchemical Research. I was…underwhelemed, and he offered to let me look at his father's library."

The other woman sighed. "I don't like it, but there's not much I can do to stop you, is there?" Isabelle just shook her head, a determined look on her face. Riza sighed again. "Fine, but be careful. And keep in mind that I'll be telling the Colonel where you're going, just in case something happens."

Isabelle snorted. "Like I care if he knows where I am. I still haven't forgiven him for his comment about my weight, you know."

"He didn't mean it, he just --"

"Didn't think? That's obvious."

Riza frowned. "He's your commanding officer, you have to respect him."

"No, Lieutenant, that's where you're wrong. He's my commanding officer, so I'm forced to listen to him and follow his orders. But he has to _earn_ my respect, just like any other human being." Isabelle turned her piercing brown-eyed gaze on Riza and added, "You're pretty well on your way to earning my respect, Lieutenant, please don't fuck it up by standing up for the Colonel when he doesn't deserve it." With that, she dropped her fork onto her lunch tray, pushed away from the table, collected her things, and stalked off. Ed, Al, and Riza watched her go, looking confused the whole time.

"Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed today," Kain Fuery declared from his spot at a nearby table. Havoc, Breda, and Falman, his lunch companions, nodded in agreement.

"She's overly sensitive," Roy Mustang countered, standing from his spot at another nearby table so the others could see him. His lunch companions nodded in agreement -- all except one. Maes Hughes looked thoughtful for a moment, tapping his finer against his lips in thought.

"I don't know…what exactly did you say to her?"

Roy closed his eyes and sighed, but made no move to answer. Everyone watched him expectantly, but he said nothing. Finally, Ed cleared his throat and declared, "He asked when she was due."

"Well, she _does_ look pregnant," Roy muttered.

"That's still not a good enough reason to ask her that," Hughes replied. "I think she was in her right to be upset."

"She asked him when his manners were due to arrive," Havoc added.

Riza nodded. "Yes, but she requested permission to speak freely first, and the Colonel gave it to her."

"But still --" Havoc began.

Hughes interrupted with a sharp laugh. "She actually said that to the Colonel? She has more backbone than I would have thought! Oh, come on Roy, you know she had a point. You're my best friend here, but you do need to think before you speak a little more and you know it."

Roy glared at him, but didn't answer. "Anyway," he said instead, looking up at Riza, who had since collected her tray and come to join his table, "where did she say she was going?"

"To the private library of some man she only met yesterday." Roy shrugged. "I don't like it, Colonel, it could be dangerous," Riza continued.

"She's a State Alchemist, she can take care of herself," he insisted. And with that, it became clear to everyone that the conversation was over.

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At precisely one o'clock, Isabelle found herself standing at the top of a short flight of steps and staring up at the ornate, dragon-shaped knocker on the dark, heavy-looking wooden door. It fit the rest of the house quite well. The place was a huge, imposing, ancient-looking stone structure in the heart of Central's Old Quarter, not too far from the ruined church of the old religion, but far enough that it was on the edge of the wealthier of the Old Quarter's two residential districts. She shivered a little, though the air around her was unseasonably warm and she had left her long coat back at the dorms. Thoughts of just leaving flitted to the front of her mind, but she pushed them firmly aside and raised her hand to the door knocker. It fell with a loud thud that she could almost imagine echoing through a cavernous entry hall, and then she waited. Isabelle didn't have too long to wait, though, for a minute later the door creaked open to reveal her host for the afternoon. "Mr. Jones," she said, nodding to him.

"Miss -- excuse me, _Major_ Chamberlain. You're right on time. Please, come in." With that, he stepped aside and held the door for her. She walked in carefully, pulling off her dark sunglasses and tilting her head up to take in as many details as she could.

The entry hall wasn't quite as big as she had imagined it, but it was still huge. The entire place was rather dark, as most of the windows were covered and the only light came from several lit candles in sconces all long the walls. Even so, she could still make out some details of her surroundings. The bottom third of the walls was paneled in dark wood with ornate decorations carved into each panel, while the rest of the wall had been painted burgundy. Most of the doors leading off the entryway were closed, and they were all of the same dark wood as the panels. The one room she could see into appeared to be an elaborate sitting room, the walls covered in a slate-blue wallpaper bearing a simple but elegant gold pattern. All of the furniture in the room was made from dark wood, and much of it was upholstered in rich fabric of the same shade of blue as the wallpaper.

William closed the door behind her and tapped her shoulder to get her attention. "This way," he said, leading her up the staircase, a small candelabra filled with lit candles clutched in his hand. At the top. He turned right and led her down the hall to a set of double doors at the very end. Here, as below, all of the windows were covered.

"Why are the windows all covered?" she asked.

He shrugged. "One side of the house faces a wall, one side faces the street, one side faces the old church, and the last side faces the back garden. But the garden died a long time ago, and we never could bring it back, so it's not very nice to look at."

"Yeah, but if you opened the windows you could have more light in here. Or you could use electricity, you know."

"Do you have any idea how difficult it would be to bring electricity into this house?" he asked, sounding amused. "It's just easier to keep using candles." He stopped in front of the doors and pulled out a ring of keys, fiddling with them until he found the one he wanted. "You shouldn't have much problem in the library, though, it's very well-lit in there."

With that, he handed her the candelabra and pushed the door open, leading her inside. Her eyes widened in shock and she gasped, absent-mindedly handing the candles back to him as she walked past him into the library.

The doors opened into a wide open space, where a large round table sat surrounded by eight ornately-carved wooden chairs upholstered in blood-red fabric. Several ancient books were piled haphazardly on the table, including one particularly large volume that was propped up on a smaller book and open to a picture of a complex transmutation circle. The center of the table boasted one of the largest wrought-iron candelabras Isabelle had ever seen, though none of the white candles in it were lit at the moment. The scene was framed by three floor-to-ceiling windows, each made of stained glass and each depicting various activities associated with alchemy: the window on the left showed a group of alchemists reading, writing, and drawing transmutation circles, the window on the right showed a man turning lead into gold while a woman turned water into wine, and the center window (just as tall as the other two but three times as wide) depicted a group of alchemists huddled around a human transmutation circle. It appeared that their efforts has been successful, for in the picture a smiling young man with long blonde hair stood in the center of the circle, arms raised to the sky in triumph. Above him, the sun shone brightly in a clear blue sky, raining light down on the happy group below. A little to the side of the rightmost window, a staircase with a railing carved to look like it was covered in a flowering vine led to the second level (which was something of a wide balcony that wrapped most of the way around the room and also contained a marble fireplace against the wall opposite the windows). There was also a third level, but from her spot on the first level Isabelle couldn't see the stairs leading to it. On both of the upper levels, a few armchairs and desks were scattered about to facilitate reading and research.

Then her eyes settled on the bookshelves -- row upon row of dark wood shelves, filled with hundreds or even thousands of books, all of then old and rare and nearly impossible for her to find elsewhere. Isabelle slowly approached a shelf and reverently pulled one of the books down, opening it and carefully turning the pages.

William coughed, and Isabelle raised her head to look at him. "Looks like you'll be busy for a while, so I'll leave you to it. If you need anything, pull this cord," he pointed to a red cord hanging by the door. "I'll come for you then." And with that, he left.

Isabelle put the book back and turned to the pile on the table. She had agreed to help sort these books in exchange for access to the library. It seemed that the best course of action for her would be to get her bearings first. She set her small bag down on one of the chairs, pulled out her notebook and a pen, and started wandering through the library, marking done what was where and what kinds of books she saw. That went on until it became too dark outside for enough light to make it in through the window. By that time she was on the third level, so she carefully made her way back to the ground floor and went to retrieve her bag. She found William standing by the table, candles in hand.

"Do you want more light?" he asked, indicating the candelabra on the table.

"No, thank you. It's getting late, so I should be going." He just nodded and waited for her to finish gathering her things before leading her out. She followed him to the front door in silence, then turned to him. "Um, if you don't mind…It's going to take me a long time to go through these books and sort them…I usually get out of work at four thirty during the week, unless I've been sent off on a mission somewhere else. Would I be able to come here to study at that time?"

"Of course," William replied. "I'll expect you a little after five tomorrow then? You should probably eat before you arrive."

Isabelle nodded. "After five tomorrow, then. Thank you, Mr. Jones." And with that, she was gone.


	5. Chapter 5

Hi all -- this one's a short one. Sorry about that, but this is my craziest day of the week so it's all I can manage at the moment. Hope you enjoy it anyway! I'll have something longer for you tomorrow. In the meantime, leave me something cheerful to come home to and review! 

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**Chapter 5**

Isabelle groaned a bit and leaned back against the bookshelf behind her, panting and wiping the sweat from her forehead. Dammit, sorting these books was hard. She needed a break, and a comfortable place to sit. Preferably not one of the chairs at the table, or at the desk, or one of the armchairs on the upper levels. The table and desk chairs were too hard, and the armchairs were too padded. She sank right down in them and then couldn't get up. It sucked being short and out of shape. Though seriously, if she kept carrying huge stacks of books up and down these stairs long enough, she might actually start to change that.

Finally feeling that her back wasn't going to murder her if she moved, Isabelle climbed to her feet and made her stiff way back down the flights of stairs to the library's first level, where she grabbed one large volume, her notebook, and her favorite pen before heading to the door. William had never said that she absolutely had to stay in the library while she was here, and the sitting room door was always open when she arrived. Besides, she had been working here for a month now. Isabelle and William weren't best friends, but they did have an understanding and they did trust each other. Time to go see if the couch there was any more comfortable than the chairs here.

She arrived at the door to find the room already occupied by William himself. He was sitting in front of a the fire, head bent over a book, most of his face hidden by a curtain of black hair. Even like that, when much of his face was invisible to her, she found him attractive. Isabelle didn't like admitting it, but it was true. There was something very alluring about the man. But she fought the feeling back. There was just no way a man like him would want a girl like her, no way at all, and she was sick of being hurt. In her opinion, that saying "Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all" was completely wrong. For Isabelle, it was just better to nip any and all attraction to a man in the bud rather than suffer through yet another rejection.

Shifting her books around a bit, she raised a hand and knocked on the door to get William's attention. He looked up at her and blinked. "Leaving already?"

"Not yet. But my back is killing me, so I was wondering if I could sit down here and read for a bit."

"Oh, of course," William replied, moving a couple of books off the couch so she would have a place to sit. Isabelle smiled gratefully and settled onto the couch with a contented sigh. William gave her a small nod and went back to his book, while Isabelle settled into another round of research.

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Envy forced his eyes to stay on the page in front of him until he was sure that Isabelle was engrossed in her work, then he risked a glance up at her. She was sitting quietly, one leg tucked up under her and the other dangling off the edge of the couch, the large book open in her lap and her pen and notebook at the ready. The fire lit up her pale skin and made her glow, and it made her dark brown hair shimmer. To his eyes, she was gorgeous. And yet, if his observations of modern human tastes in things like fashion and the human body were correct, Isabelle wasn't considered even a little bit pretty by most modern people. He didn't understand it at all.

Suddenly, without warning, he itched to have a pencil in his hand. Envy frowned, eyes darting down to the book in his lap so he could blame his frown on that if Isabelle noticed. He pondered the urge, finally figuring out its source -- he wanted to draw. That in and of itself was a shock to him. He hadn't drawn since becoming a Homunculus four hundred years ago. It was sad, really, because he had been an excellent artist during his human lifetime. But when that had ended, he had pushed his drawing aside just like he had pushed aside eating regular meals and sleeping according to a regular schedule. Those were things humans did, and as a Homunculus he no longer needed to do them. Drawing, in his mind, was no different. It was a useless vestige of the human life he had left behind. But now…there was something about Isabelle that brought his old human creativity surging to the surface once more.

Envy flipped a page in his book and gave his head a small, barely perceptible shake. This human woman certainly did strange things to him. Now, if only he could figure out what all of those things were, and why they happened, he would be quite happy.


	6. Chapter 6

Well, look at that. Almost 300 hits! So, a great big thanks to all my readers, watchers, and reviewers is in order. As promised, this chapter is longer than the last one. Let me know what you think!

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** Chapter 6  
**

Envy looked up from his sketch pad at the clock on the table beside his bed in his hidden bedroom. Almost one in the morning. He frowned, lowering the pad a bit and studying the clock more. He didn't remember hearing Isabelle leave. Envy sighed and set his drawing tools on the small table before unfolding himself from the position he'd been huddled in, taking on his William Jones form, and heading for the library to see what was going on.

Over the past six weeks, he and Isabelle had settled into a comfortable pattern. She would show up at exactly five fifteen every day (except weekends, when it was more like one in the afternoon when she arrived), and he would let her in. She would greet him politely and head right off to the library, where she would absorb herself in her research and sorting until she was ready to go. At that time, she would pull the red cord by the library door, and Envy would show up to see her off. The cord was attached to a series of bells that he had installed in his own private wing of the house, the wing that could be entered through the other set of double doors on the same floor as the library entrance. Isabelle had never tried to go down there, but he always kept the doors locked just in case. He was usually in his adorable Envy form while in the private wing, and it just wouldn't due for her to see him like that.

But the bells had never rung tonight, and that had him curious. Had she really left without saying goodbye? That wasn't like Isabelle at all. When Envy arrived at the library doors, he pushed them open and stepped inside. The candelabra on the table and several of the many wall sconces around the library had been lit. As usual, the table was covered in books, some opened, some closed and piled on top of each other. And there, asleep at the table, head resting on the open book before her, was Isabelle.

Envy sighed. Just what was he supposed to do now? Only one thing to do, he supposed. He couldn't leave her there all night. Sighing, he walked over to the table, bent over, and carefully picked her up. _Dammit, she's heavy_. But at least he had managed to pick her up. Now, time to find a place to put her down.

Thanks to Wrath and his regular if begrudging use of alchemy to clean the place, even rooms that hadn't been touched in years were fresh and clean. The room he brought Isabelle to now was no different. This room had one of the few uncovered windows in the house, and the light of the nearly-full moon flooded the room as a result. A comfortable-looking armchair sat to one side of the window. The other side was taken up by the bed, a large piece of furniture whose wrought-iron headboard and footboard had been made to look like leafy, flowery vines. The bed itself was covered with satiny sheets and blankets in several shades of green, and a thick velvet canopy hung from the wall above the bed. The window had curtains of the same velvety material, held back with a muted gold cord. The room also held a wardrobe and dressing table, both made of wood as well as wrought iron and both decorated to match the bed. Envy carried Isabelle over to the bed and was about to set her down, when she let out a quiet but audible sigh. He froze, worried that she was going to wake up, but she didn't. Instead, she shifted a bit (almost making him drop her) and her right hand came to rest on his chest. Her fingers curled around a bit of his shirt before she settled down and continued sleeping, breathing quietly.

Envy slowly and carefully backed up until he was in front of the chair, then sat down, Isabelle still cuddled in his arms. He stared down at her, a strange feeling in his chest. There was something about the way she looked right now, something that he couldn't pinpoint, and it made him feel…different. He couldn't even name this emotion, it had been so long since he'd felt anything but the drive to get revenge on his father and the associated emotions of anger, hatred, and the perverse pleasure that came from causing harm to others. He thought about this now, tilting his head this way and that as he pondered. And then, unbidden, a memory floated to the surface of his confused thoughts. Envy and Isabelle rarely spoke much when she came to use the library, but a couple of weeks ago they had had a fairly long conversation…

FLASHBACK

Envy pushed the library door open and stepped inside, bearing a tray of hot food. As was usual on a Saturday, Isabelle had been let out of work right after lunch at noon, and had arrived here exactly at one o'clock. It was now seven, and though Envy usually tried not to worry about her (and in fact tried to avoid her), he didn't want a State Alchemist collapsing from hunger in his library. So when she hadn't emerged on her own to go in search of food, he had gotten something delivered and was now on his way to feed her.

Isabelle was nowhere to be seen when he arrived at the table, but that didn't last long. As he turned to look for her, what appeared to be a floating pile of books appeared from the other side of a bookshelf. The pile was immediately followed by Isabelle herself, for she was apparently planning to study all of them and was thus brining them to the table. "What's that?" she asked

"Your dinner. It's seven, you know. Aren't you hungry?"

She set the books on the table and stared at the food. "Oh yes. Yes yes yes." Without further ado, Isabelle dropped into the seat in front of her dinner, grabbed the utensils, and started eating. She stopped a minute later when she noticed that William hadn't left, but also wasn't joining her for dinner. "What?"

"Nothing, really," he replied. "But I've been wondering…you're always either here or at work. Don't you have a life?"

She frowned at him. "My heart beats, I breathe, I eat, I sleep, and if I really wanted to I could probably reproduce. So yeah, I'd say I have a life."

Envy sighed and shook his head, sending William's black hair swaying. "That's not what I meant. When do you have time for your friends or your family?"

Isabelle just kept eating her dinner. He was about to give up on getting an answer when she finally set her utensils down and said, very softly. "I don't have any friends."

"You…what?" he asked, confused.

"I don't have any friends. And my family is quite far away. Really, even if they were closer, I doubt I'd see them much. They don't think too highly of all this 'alchemy crap,' as they call it. They think even less of me being in the military."

"But…didn't you tell me you work with that Fullmetal kid?"

She nodded. "Yeah, but I wouldn't call him a friend. I wouldn't call anyone else in that office a friend either, except maybe Riza, and she just worries about me because she doesn't want Colonel Asshole getting in trouble if something happens to me."

Envy felt something then. Was it pity? Sadness on her behalf? He wasn't sure. But something made him keep questioning her. "What about a boyfriend or a girlfriend? Surely you have to have one of those."

Isabelle snorted, pushing back from the table and taking a few quick steps away from it. For a moment, she stood with her back towards the man she knew as William. Then, slowly, she turned to him, arms held slightly away from her sides and head bowed. "Look at me, William. Just look at me. I'm no beauty. In fact, I'm quite plain. I'm fat and I'm short, I'm so pale some people wonder if I've ever been out in the sun, and I have the most common hair and eye color in all of Amestris. Apparently my personality isn't all that stellar either, or I'd have friends. Now, do I really need to answer your last question? Do you honestly believe a girl like me currently has or ever will have a significant other?"

Envy was taken aback by her response, staring at her in open-mouthed surprise for a few moments. "You…you're never loved…"

"Oh, I've loved all right," she replied bitterly. "I've loved so many times that I've lost count." She reached up and rubbed her eyes hard, blinking a couple of times. "But it takes two to have a relationship, you know…and for all the times I've loved, I've never been loved back."

"But…but…I'm sure that'll change someday," he replied bracingly. "I mean, it's just that the right person hasn't come along yet."

Isabelle laughed bitterly. "I've been telling myself that for eight years. I was fourteen when all the weddings started -- cousins, friends of my parents, friends of my older siblings. I kept telling myself it was only a matter of time before I found a boyfriend. And yet, I'm the only one of my old schoolmates to have not paired off with someone else. I'm the only one in my family of my age who has never been on a date." She sighed. "I've given up on love, William. My research is my life now, and it always will be. There's no room for anything else anymore"

END FLASHBACK

Envy had left her to her own devices after that, taking the dinner tray with him. There was no point in staying and making her more upset than she already was. She hadn't come to use the library for two days after that conversation, and he had been worried about her then (though he would never admit that). When she returned, he had felt relieved. Things went back to normal between them, though she didn't seem as tense around him as she had before. He wondered if she trusted him more.

That had been the night he had begun to draw again as well, finally giving in to the urge that had first overtaken him a few nights before that conversation, when Isabelle had come to the sitting room looking for a more comfortable place to read. He wasn't sure what had driven him to take up his pencil again that night, but he knew two things: drawing had eased the mysterious tension and pressure in his chest, and he had been shocked to discover that the person staring out at him from the page he had drawn on was Isabelle. Though she didn't know it, she had since been his subject for many days and more projects than he could count.

He sighed a bit, leaning back in the chair and looking down at the sleeping woman in his arms. Somehow, he felt the crazy urge to protect her from everything. _Envy, stop being suc an idiot, you barely know anything about her_. After a few minutes of watching her sleep, he concluded that there was no way he could stay here like this all night, no matter how much he wanted to (not that he would ever admit that either), and that he therefore had to put her to bed. He was just getting ready to stand again when he detected some motion out of the corner of his eye. Envy turned, green William-eyes narrowed in concentration. His eyes roamed slowly over the room, finally reaching the door --

-- and falling Wrath, who was watching Envy and Isabelle with an amused expression on his face.  
Envy stood abruptly and strode to the bed, setting Isabelle there as quickly as he dared before turning his attention to the younger Homunculus. He crossed the room quickly and arrived at the door, leaning over Wrath and hissing, "What do you want, pipsqueak?"

"Lust is looking for you, baka," Wrath hissed back. "So when you're done having fun with your human, you should come down." With that, he turned and left, leaving a fuming Envy behind. Envy turned back to the girl on the bed. She had curled into a tighter ball now, apparently missing the warmth of his body. He sighed, going over to the bed and carefully pulling back the blankets on Isabelle's other side. He studied her, then, finally deciding that he couldn't let her sleep in her boots and military jacket, so he pulled those off as quickly as he could without waking her up, situated her under the blankets, and slipped silently away. He took a quick detour to make sure the doors to his private wing were locked, then rushed down the stairs and through the secret passageway to the underground city. He arrived at the mansion not too long after, changing back into his normal Envy form before entering. Sure enough, Lust was waiting for him…but so were the others. Even Pride and Greed were there. _What is this_??

"You sure seem to have that human over a lot," Lust said by way of greeting.

Envy shrugged. "She wants to use the library," he replied nonchalantly. "It'll pay off eventually, you'll see."

Pride snorted. "You do know who she is, right? The Shadow Alchemist isn't one to be taken lightly."

Envy's eyes started to widen in shock, but he recovered quickly and grinned. But inside, he was in turmoil. _The Shadow Alchemist_…_Pride's mentioned her before_. _But it can't he her_. _There's no way that girl is_ _doing such high-level research on human transmutation_! _What use does she have for it_? "Of course I knew that!" he replied cheerfully. "It's all part of my master plan!"

"Master plan?" Sloth asked, raising and eyebrow.

"Of course! See, if she's doing research on human transmutation, she might find a way to make us human again! We can't do the research ourselves, you know."

Lust and the others exchanged a nervous glance. All except Gluttony, that is -- he just looked hungry. "Are you sure she can be trusted?" Lust asked. "What if she finds out what you are and tells the others?"

Envy waved his hand dismissively. "She has no friends there, she won't be telling anyone anything of use anytime soon. And besides, do you really think I'd _let_ her find out about us? Have some faith in me, Lust."

"You better be right about this!" she called after him as he walked away. He just waved at her over his shoulder and continued on.

Isabelle groaned and snuggled further under the blankets, squeezing her eyes even more tightly shut and refusing to admit that it really was morning and she probably should get up. _Mm, when did my bed get so comfy_? She sighed and rolled onto her back, letting her arm flop onto the bed beside her. _Wait...onto the bed_? _When did my little twin_ _bed get so big_? She opened her eyes just enough to look at her hand where it lay on the bed…the very green bed. _I don't have green sheets_. _When did my bed get so green_? Opening her eyes all the way, she looked around. The first thing she noticed was the canopy hanging above her. _And when did I get a canopy? Dammit, where the hell am I?_ Isabelle thought back to the night before, trying to figure out what she had done after leaving William's place…

"Oh my god I never left the library last night!" she exclaimed, sitting bolt upright in the bed and staring down at herself. She still wore most of her uniform. In fact, the only parts of it she didn't have on were her jacket and boots. She slid carefully out of bed and pulled those on, doing her best to make her hair presentable before leaving the room. She made her way down the stairs as quietly as she could, not sure if William was awake yet or not, and went in search of a clock. From the amount of light that had been streaming in through her window, she was rather late for work. Which meant she also needed a phone, so she could call in and explain what had happened…once she figured that out for herself anyway.

She hadn't made it very far past the bottom of the stairs when a voice came from above her. "Finally awake, I see." Isabelle looked up curiously to see William standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at her, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. She nearly melted at the sight. As much as Isabelle wanted to just keep their relationship professional, she couldn't help but think that he was incredibly attractive.

"Yes," she replied. "Er…how did I wind up asleep in your bed, and how late am I for work?"

He started down the stair towards her. "You fell asleep in the library, I put you in one of the _guest_ beds because I thought it would be more comfortable than sleeping on a pile of books, and it's almost noon. I took the liberty of calling in for you today." Her eyes widened in shock and she looked like she was about to fly into a rage, when William held up his hand to stop her. "I don't know when you fell asleep last night, but it was one in the morning when I found you. Seems to me that you needed the sleep."

Isabelle sighed and nodded. "Well, I suppose I might as well get back to work then."

William gave her a small bow and watched her trudge back up the stairs. She was partway up when he asked, "Are you hungry?"

She paused, the nodded. "A little."

"Alright then. Go to work, I'll bring you some breakfast." He didn't bother waiting for her reply before heading off to the kitchen.

By the time he arrived with her breakfast (toast, pancakes, some ham, and orange juice), she was already deep into a book. Or rather, she wanted to be deep in the book. But this one was just frustrating her to no end. She closed the book and pushed it aside, growling in frustration and raking her fingers through her long brown hair.

"Trouble?" William asked, setting the tray down and eyeing the book.

"Yeah, I can't read it," she replied, sounding annoyed. "I don't know the language. But I feel like there's something useful in there, something I need to read and understand."

He picked the book up and flipped through it while Isabelle attacked her food. She was starving, having barely had any dinner before coming to the library. William nodded as he studied the book, the finally snapped it shut and looked down at Isabelle. "I can read this," he said. "Want me to translate it for you?"

"You…you would do that? Translate the whole thing for me?"

"Sure. Just be patient, it might take a while."

"No problem! Oh, thank you so much William!" Before she really knew what she was doing, she had stood and flung her arms around him, hugging him tightly. William blushed a deep crimson and patted her back gingerly.

"There, now, it's not a big deal. I'll leave you to your work now, alright?" And with that, he took the book and left a very happy but slightly bewildered Isabelle behind.


	7. Chapter 7

New chapter! Enjoy!

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**Chapter 7**

Riza looked up from her paperwork at the sound of another person entering the room, then dropped the papers on her desk and stood quickly. "What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" Isabelle asked, slipping out of her long coat and hanging it on the office coat rack.

"You were sick yesterday. You never call in sick."

Isabelle frowned at her. "What, I'm not allowed to get sick now? It happens, you know." With that, she stalked over to her own desk, plopped down in the seat, and glared at the pile of papers on her desk. Her gaze softened when she realized that several of the papers weren't official documents, but appeared to be notes from her office colleagues.

"Sure you're allowed to get sick," Riza said quietly. "But you sounded pretty bad when you called in yesterday, and we all know how hard you've been working. If you're not here you're at that library. And if you're not at that library, you're shut up in your room studying or trying to help Fullmetal with something. You keep going like this and you're going to crash, and badly."

The brown-haired woman snorted and turned back to her work. "You only care because you don't want the Colonel to get in trouble if something bad happens to me," she mumbled.

_BANG_! Isabelle jumped and shrieked at the sound of a gun going off so close to her. She stared at the smoking hole in the corner of her desk, then shouted, "What the _hell_ did you do that for?"

"To get your attention," Riza replied coldly. "And now that I have it, I expect you to listen closely to what I have to say. Yes, I care very much what happens to the Colonel. I've sworn an oath to protect him, and I'll keep that oath even if it kills me. I don't want to see him get in trouble for anything. But that's not why I worry about the other people here, including you. I worry because I care about what happens to you all, and I don't want to see anyone hurt if it can be avoided."

Isabelle just stared at her for a second, then bowed her head. "I…I'm sorry, Riza."

The other woman nodded. "It's alright. Just try to think a little more before you say something like that in the future, ok?"

Isabelle nodded and quietly went back to her work. She read through the notes from her office mates, surprised that any of them had really taken the time to worry about her absence, let alone write anything to her. The longest note was from the Elric brothers, who had left to follow up a lead in a city father south of here, and were hoping they'd have some information to share with her when they got back. They even scolded her a bit about not taking any time to rest, and wished her a quick recovery from her illness. Havoc had written her a note teasing her about all the time she spent at William's house, while Fuery's note informed her that he had spent the better part of that day telling Havoc off for his constant jokes. Falman had sketched a little picture of himself rolling his eyes at Fuery and Havoc and begged her to come back soon because he didn't know how much more of their mild bickering he could take. Breda's note was a simple get-well message, with a scrawled addition stating that it had taken him a good twenty minutes to put the note on her desk because Black Hayate wouldn't get out of his way (Breda hated dogs). There was also a small card on which "Get well soon, Shadow" had been written, but there was no name. Whoever had written it had drawn a small transmutation circle in the lower right corner of the card, though. It looked familiar, but she couldn't place it. There was no time to ponder the note's origins, for as much as she would have rather continued staring at her cards and notes, she had to do some work. But the cards kept distracting her that morning. Really, who would have guessed that anyone in that office really cared about her?

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It was just about a month later, at exactly 11:46 am on December fifth, when Fuery entered the office wearing a red-and-white Santa Claus-style hat and bearing a small black bag full of mail. "Look what we have!" he exclaimed, pulling a letter out and handing it to Breda before continuing on to the others.

"What's this?" Isabelle asked as she took the red envelope with gold lettering Fuery offered her.

"Invitations to the annual holiday party," Riza replied as she opened her own letter.

"Is it just for our office?" Ed asked from his vantage point by the window. Al was leaning over his shoulder, reading the invitation. Though Ed had been part of the office for years, he and his brother had never been around for the party.

Falman shook his head. "No, it's for the whole branch. Everyone will be there."

"They let us bring guests, too," Breda added. Turning to Hughes, who had come to the branch with a new report for the Colonel, he said, "Are you going to bring Elysia this year?"

"Nah, she's still too young," Hughes replied. "But I'll bring plenty of pictures!" Whipping out what appeared to be the newest bunch, he cornered Breda and shoved the pictures at him. "Look at this! Isn't she the cutest little girl ever? She's Christmas shopping in this picture, and eating Christmas cookies in this one, and…"

"So, you gonna go with someone, Lieutentant?" Havoc asked, winking at Riza.

Riza blushed. "I have my own invitation, don't I?"

"Yeah, but you could still meet someone there!" Havoc continued. At a sharp look from Riza, though, he quickly changed the subject. "How about you, Fuery, you bringing anyone?"

Fuery too blushed. "Well, there IS a cute girl I've sort of been seeing…I suppose I could ask her…"

"Ooh, you really should," Isabelle said, marking the date of the party on her desk calendar before tucking the card back in it envelope. "It would be fun!"

He nodded and chuckled a bit, rubbing the back of his neck shyly and studying his boots. Havoc, meanwhile, had a new target. "And what about _you_, Chamberlain?"

"Yeah, what about me?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Are you gonna bring a date?"

She shrugged. "I don't know yet."

Havoc laughed. "Sure you know! It's going to be one of your books, I just know it."

Isabelle stiffened a bit, eyes widening in shock. "A book?"

"Yeah, a book! I mean, you spend all of your time in a library, after all…"

"Havoc…" she said warningly.

"So what'll it be, huh? A book on those transmutation thingies?"

"Lieutenant…" Ed added, frowning at the other man.

"Ooh! A book on alchemy history!"

"Havoc, really…" Fuery put in. Keeping her eyes on Havoc, Isabelle slowly reached up, took a pen off her desk, and slowly laid her hands in her lap. She glanced down, hoping he wouldn't notice anything suspicious until she was done.

"Or _maybe_ all this talk about 'going to the library' and 'researching stuff' is really just a _code_ for something…"

Riza, who had been standing slightly behind Isabelle the whole time, suddenly noticed what she was doing. "Havoc, I really think you should just…"

"And you're going to show up to the party with a really hot guy, aren't you? Or," he gasped, "a really hot _girl_! Yes, that's it!" With that, he stood there for a moment, grinning in triumph.

His triumph was cut short, however, for a few moments later, he found himself slammed back against the wall. He slid down the wall and settled into a puddle of water. He looked down at himself, dazed. It looked like he had just taken a shower with his uniform on, and it felt like he's been punched in the gut.

"Hmm," Isabelle said, looking at the transmutation circle she had drawn in her left palm. "I think I need to refine my technique, the water jet wasn't supposed to be that strong."

Al lifted Havoc to his feet while Ed clapped his hands and knelt to deconstruct the water. "We _did_ try to warn you, but you didn't listen," he said from his spot on the floor as the water vanished.

Havoc sighed and left the office, headed for the locker room and a fresh, dry uniform. Just after he left, a young aide arrived bearing a thick envelope. "Is the Colonel in?" she asked.

"I think so," Isabelle said, still studying her hand. "Just leave that here, I'll bring it in to him." The aide left the package on Isabelle's desk and left. Isabelle herself sighed, picking it up and standing. "Time to go see the Colonel."

She stopped outside his office door and knocked sharply, but there was no answer. She knocked again, but still no answer. "Colonel? Are you there?" Again no answer. She tried the door and discovered that it was unlocked. Worried, now, she called out, "Colonel, I'm coming in!" After waiting for a few seconds to make sure he wasn't going to answer, she opened the door and stepped inside.

The room didn't look any different than it had that first time she was there, except that the only other person there besides her was the Colonel. He was sitting behind his desk, procrastinating as usual. His chin was rested in one of his gloved hands and he was staring, dreamy eyed, at the picture sitting on his desk. A small smile played across his lips as he studied the picture.

"Um, Colonel?"

Mustang sighed, but gave no indication that he had heard his visitor.

"Amestris to Roy Mustang, are you there?"

This time he did speak, but it wasn't directed at the woman standing in front of him. Instead, he reached up and touched a spot on the picture with his free hand and murmured, "Beautiful…"

Isabelle glared at him and stalked forward until she was right in front of his desk. There, she dropped the thick envelope right in front of him, planted her hands on the desk, and leaned closer to him.

"COLONEL!"

"WHAT!!" he exclaimed, jerking back and looking around in shock. "Oh, Chamberlain, it's you. What is it?"

She jabbed a finger at the package on his desk. "Package for you, sir. You can deal with it when you're done ogling the picture and avoiding the rest of your work. What is this picture, anyway?" She added, picking it up and turning it towards her. It turned out to be a picture of the Colonel and officers. _Please tell me he's not that much of a narcissist_, she thought as she eyed the picture. _But wait_…_there's Riza_…_Hold on, Riza_? _Could it be_…?

"It's a nice picture, isn't it?" he said quickly. "But it's old. See, you and Fullmetal aren't in it, so we need to have a new one taken."

"Yeah, we should," Isabelle replied dryly. "But right now I have work to finish before I go back to the library tonight, so I'll leave you to it." And with that, she left, pondering her newest potential discovery the whole way back to her office.

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Thought I was going to let you go easy, didn't I? Authors love feedback, so please review! 


	8. Chapter 8

Time for the morning update! It's another busy day at school for me, so leave me something happy to come home to!

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**Chapter 8**

"So, I've finished translating these three for you, and I'm about to start on this one here," William said as Isabelle took the three piles of paper from him. "Has it been helping you? Having the translations, I mean?"

"Oh yeah, it's great!" she exclaimed, flipping a few pages in each stack before moving on to the next. "Ooh, look at this, so _that's_ what that circle was for…hmm, this could be an interesting lead…"

William chuckled as she become absorbed in her work once again. "You still won't tell me what you're looking for, will you?"

Isabelle looked up and gave him a sad smile. "I'm sorry, William, but you know I can't. It's top-secret."

"It's alright. But you know, I am curious about it, so if you ever can tell me…"

"I know right where to find you," she finished, her sad smile transforming into a brilliant grin.

That was how things had become between then recently. They had lots of conversations, some longer than others, and Isabelle would often arrive during the week to discover that William had dinner ready for her. They would eat together, and then they would head off to the library, where Isabelle would pore through the latest useful-looking books while William worked on translating something for her. It had become a very comfortable friendship.

Except that's not what Isabelle wanted it to be.

For weeks, she had fought with every ounce of her being to keep her attraction to William hidden. Such things had always ended badly for her in the past, and she needed access to this library. It was just better for her to ignore her feelings and get on with her research. The Elrics were counting on her, now…and she needed to find a way to do a human transmutation safely.

But slowly, surely, William had worked his way into her heart. She had finally realized it the night she told him about not having friends and never being loved. Or rather, she had realized it the first time she had returned to the house a few days after that incident, when William gave her a small smile and said he was glad to see her again. Since then, she had let her guard down a bit more, and William too had seemed to be more at ease. It had gotten Isabelle thinking…could he be the one? The one to break the cycle of loving without being loved back? It was something for her to consider.

Isabelle didn't stop working for a very long time, and by the time she finally paused long enough to glance at her watch, she noticed that it was almost eight. Almost time for her to go. She sighed and started packing her things up. "We should stop for the night. Fuery will be here to pick me up soon." Her co-workers didn't like the idea of her walking back to the dorms on her own so late at night, and they had started taking turns coming to get her.

William nodded and closed the book he'd been working on. "I'll finish this for you in the morning," he said, standing and following Isabelle from the library.

She paused by the door, setting her bag down just long enough to slip into her long black winter coat, which William held for her. She buttoned the coat, the reached for her hat and gloves. As she pulled the black leather gloves on, Isabelle turned to William. "I suppose I should tell you now, but I won't be able to make it on the twentieth. It's the big annual holiday party at the branch, and I really should go."

"Oh," William replied, sounding a little disappointed. "So I won't get to see you that day, I guess."

"What are you talking about?" Isabelle asked, looking up and him and giving him a small smile. "We're allowed to bring a guest, and I was wondering…well…I don't know if parties like that are your kind of things, but if you'd like…um…" Her cheeks burned crimson and she suddenly became very interested in staring down at her gloves.

William laughed. "Are you asking if I want to go to the party with you?" She nodded. "Well, Miss Chamberlain, I am very pleased to accept your invitation. Let me know when you have details, okay?"

She nodded, and at that moment a car horn sounded from outside. "Sounds like Fuery's here. I'll see you tomorrow, William!" And with a quick wave, she was gone.

Envy closed the door behind her and locked it, listening carefully to make sure she really was gone, before changing back to his usual form and letting out a loud, excited laugh. He made his cheerful way back up the stairs and into his private wing, where he threw himself down on his huge red-sheeted bed and continued with his laughing. He felt…really really good. For the first time in a long time, he was happy about something that had nothing to do with hurting other people or getting revenge on his father. Was this that "love" humans were always going on about? It sure felt nice. Like all of his best memories happening to him all over again, all at the same time, but even better. _Well, no one ever said the life of a Homunculus made sense, did they? Now, what am I going to wear to this party… _

Then another thought grabbed him, and he sat bolt upright in shock. _Dammit, what am I going to tell the others? They can't know what's really going on. They have to think this is all a part of a plan to get Isabelle to help us without even knowing it. But I can't let them hurt her, or her friends…she did say she was getting on better with the people at work, after all, no point in hurting them now._ He slid from the bed and began pacing back and forth, pondering his options. _I suppose there's only one thing to try. I have to just tell Lust that she's working for us and doesn't even know it, and that to keep her and her work safe we need to leave her and her friends alone. No attacking them until we get what we want. Yes, I'll try that…but not right now. Right now, William needs to plan a proper party outfit…and I need to draw. That look on her face before she asked me to the party was incredible_.

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"You _what_?"

Isabelle glared at Havoc. "No need to be so loud about it," she hissed at him. "I asked William to the party with me."

"What did he say?" Breda asked, leaning forward and wincing as Black Hayate padded by behind him. Riza just rolled her eyes at the man and looked down at her dog, patting his head and quietly ordering him to lie down.

"He said yes," Isabelle replied, once again blushing at the memory of the conversation.

"So _that's_ what you were so happy about!" Fuery said, grinning at her. "I though you were in a really good mood when I picked you up last night."

"It's about time we actually get to see this guy," Falman added.

Hughes looked up from where he was busy drowning Havoc in pictures of his daughter. "Just make sure you tell him it's a formal party. We don't want a repeat of the disaster of five years ago…"

"The disaster of five years ago?" Isabelle asked.

Riza nodded. "I remember that. We had a bunch of new people in the branch, and they all thought 'holiday party' meant 'wear whatever you want and show up drunk'. Roy -- er, Colonel Mustang -- had the job of kicking them out. Apparently one of them lost his shirt, another got his hair singed almost completely off, and the third wound up naked when all of his clothes were burned off."

"Ouch," Isabelle said, and the others nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we wouldn't want that to happen again."

"So who are you going with, Lieutenant?" Havoc asked Riza, eyes twinkling mischievously.

Riza blushed. "I already told you, I got my own invitation. What makes you think I'm going with anyone?"

"Oh, just wondering," Havoc replied innocently.

The chatter continued on from there, with Hughes finding a new target for his picture obsession and the others nagging Riza about having a date for the party. Isabelle just listened to it all, not paying too much attention but happy to be with the cheerful group. Then she looked towards the door, just in time to see the hulking form of Alphonse Elric appear. She grinned. Al's presence meant the brothers were back from their latest assignment. She let her eyes travel down, searching for Ed --

-- and frowned. Why was he leaning on Al like that? She excused herself from the table and walked over to the brothers, meeting them just as they settled into the table closest to the door. "Hey you two, when did you get back?"

"Just now!" Al exclaimed. "How are you, Isabelle?"

"I'm fine," she replied, eyeing Ed closely. "What happened to you?"

"Wrath, the bastard," the elder Elric spat. He rubbed his left thigh and winced.

Isabelle raised an eyebrow. "Wrath?"

Ed nodded. "You remember me telling you about the Homunuculi?" Isabelle nodded. "Well, one of them is a kid named Wrath. He's pretty strong for being so young, and…well, he has my real arm and my real leg, and he can use alchemy. Anyway, on our way back here he attacked us, and did some real damage to my automail leg. I don't know how bad, though, I haven't gotten to look at it yet. But the cafeteria was closer to the entrance than the offices, and I didn't want to make Al carry me."

Isabelle nodded and looked around. Everyone seemed absorbed in their meals and their conversations, and Ed was sitting so that his back was to most of the room. She pointed to a spot next to Ed and said, "Al, stand there please. I'm going to take a look at Ed's leg, if he doesn't mind." Ed shook his head, and Isabelle knelt down in front of him. She pulled his boot off and set it aside, then started carefully rolling the pantleg up over the automail limb. She got to his knee with no problem, but then the material caught on something. Isabelle frowned and carefully slipped a hand under the material, feeling along the metal limb until she found the culprit -- a broken panel on the automail whose jagged edge had snagged on the material. She freed the pants from the jagged bit of metal and continued on until she could see Ed's skin, then stopped and tried very hard not to be ill. "Ed…"

Ed, Isabelle, and Al stared down at the damage Wrath had done. Both Ed's automail arm and leg could be easily detached and reattached due to the presence of a metal and mechanical cap that had been placed over the original injuries and bolted in place. The caps provided the connection between the wires in the automail and Ed's nerves, and when his limbs were removed for repairs the caps could be closed to prevent damage to the coupling points. Ed was used to seeing the limbs themselves damaged. After all, he had once had his entire automail arm destroyed and had had to have Winry and Aunt Pinako build him a new one. But he had never expected this to happen.

"How the hell did you manage to walk on that?" Isabelle exclaimed, staring down at the injury. Wrath had managed to mangle the section of automail right beneath the cap. The jagged piece of metal Isabelle had felt earlier was the result of a plate snapping and bending from the force of his kick. But the worst damage hade been done to the cap itself -- part of it had been pried away from Ed's flesh, and the injury was now oozing blood.

"Well, it didn't hurt that much…until I looked at it…" Ed replied, turning slightly green.

"Come on, Nii-san, I'll carry you to the hospital," Al said, bending down to pick Ed up.

"I'll put in a call to the Rockbells for you," Isabelle added, standing and heading towards the door. "Maybe they can get here soon to fix that for you."

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Wrath grunted as he hit the wall, which he promptly slid down. He snarled as he came to a rather rough stop on the floor and reached up to rub the back of his head. "What was that for?"

"You attacked the Fullmetal chibi!" Envy shouted. "After I specifically told you _not_ to!"

"You're not the boss of me!" Wrath shouted back, standing and settling into a defensive stance. Not that it helped him any. Envy was too fast and strong, and he managed to backhand the younger Homunculus across the face before Wrath could so much as raise a hand to block the hit.

"Actually, I _am_ the boss of you," Envy snarled. "In case you didn't notice, I answer to no one but myself."

"Still, you have to admit that it doesn't make sense, Envy," Lust said smoothly from behind him. "No attacks on the Elrics or their allies? Won't that make them suspicious?"

Envy straightened and turned sideways, so that he could both look at Lust and keep an eye on Wrath. "The goal is to keep o-chibi-san and his friends there focused on their research. And besides," he added with a sadistic grin, "if they get used to being left alone, they'll let their guard down eventually. Just imagine what we can do with them then!"

Lust sighed, but nodded anyway. "I don't understand it, and I don't really like it, but we'll try it. Wrath, go away. Go bother Greed or something." The younger Homunculus glared at his elders, but he obediently left. Envy watched him go, feeling a twinge of guilt. Continuing his attacks on Wrath was part of the plan to keep the others from getting suspicious, but he didn't really like it. Isabelle was having more of an influence on him than he'd thought. Not that he minded, really, but it made it more difficult to keep the others in the dark.

"This had better work, Envy. I'm getting tired of waiting," Lust said once Wrath was gone.

Envy nodded. "I'm sure it'll work. She's a smart girl."

Lust snorted. "You're getting pretty cozy with her, you know."

"Oh, I know. That's all part of the plan too. Just trust me, Lust, and be patient for a little longer. We're almost there."


	9. Chapter 9

Aww, this is one of my favorite chapters. It's kind of fluffy, and I like fluff every once in a while. Hope you like it too!

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**Chapter 9**

"I thought you said he was coming tonight."

It was December 20, the night of the big holiday party, and Isabelle was standing outside in the snow. It would have been a pretty site, really -- Isabelle, most of her long brown hair down, the rest up in an elaborate bun, dressed in an emerald-green sleeveless ball gown sprinkled with crystal-clear gems, standing in the snow on a clear, star-lit night. The tiny lights decorating the bushes and the outside of the hotel where the party was being held reflected off the gems on her gown, in her hair, and on the bottom edges of the long white gloves sheathing her arms, making them sparkle. Yes, it would have been a lovely sight, if not for the fact that Isabelle was freezing and on the verge of tears. William was supposed to be at the party by now, but he was half an hour late. What had happened to him?

Isabelle turned to Ed, who had come up behind her with Al and Winry. "That's what he told me," she replied miserably. "You don't think he could be standing me up, do you?"

Winry looked troubled by that, and promptly stepped forward to put her arm around Isabelle's shoulder. "He better not have, because if he did I'm going to have to find him and beat him with a wrench." Though Winry had only met Isabelle the previous week, when she had come to Central City to fix Ed's automail, the two had become fast friends. Isabelle gave her a weak smile and chuckled. Winry smiled back, but added, "Really, Isabelle, you shouldn't be out here in the cold like this. You'll get sick. Come wait for him inside."

"No, I want to wait here for a few more minutes," the shorter girl replied. She stoically turned her gaze back towards the empty road.

Winry sighed and shook her head, letting her arm fall and making her way back to Ed's side. "Well, don't stay out here too long, okay? We want you to join the party eventually."

"Ok. I'll be in soon," Isabelle replied. But as the others left, she silently vowed that she wasn't going to walk into that party without William. If he didn't arrive soon, she was going to get her cloak (borrowed from Riza for the evening because it matched her gown so well) and leave. She couldn't face a roomful of happy people when her own heart was aching so much.

The minutes passed slowly, and finally she was too cold to take it anymore. Sighing, she turned and started back up the steps to the hotel. Isabelle had just made it to the door and had laid her green-gloved hand on the handle when the door was suddenly lit up in a flood of light from the road. She turned, squinting at the light. There was a car there, but because of is headlights she couldn't see anything. Isabelle heard a car door opening, a voice saying something, and then a car door closing before the car slowly backed up and disappeared again. And there, standing just where the car had been, was William. He smiled up at her apologetically and ascended the stairs towards her, stopping just in front of her and giving her a sweeping bow.

"I'm sorry I'm so late," he said. "I got held up at the house. Some friends dropped by unexpectedly and it took me a while to get them settled elsewhere so I could come here."

"Oh…you didn't have to leave your friends on my account, really," Isabelle replied, blushing.

William shrugged. "It's not that important. I actually get to see them quite often. This sort of thing only happens once in a while, though, and there was no way I could miss it." With that, he grasped the door handles and said, "Shall we?" She grinned and nodded. William opened the doors with a flourish, then held out his arm to her. Isabelle hooked her hand around his elbow and let him guide her into the building and the party.

She let her eyes wander over the crowd as they walked, making their way to the food- and drink-laden table at the other end of the ballroom. Breda and Falman were dateless, and they had gathered with a few of the other dateless bachelors in one corner, where they sipped drinks and exchanged stories for most of the evening. They were all staring at Isabelle and her date now, Falman nodding happily to her and Breda mouthing "It's about damn time he got here!" A little further on, Havoc and Sheska (Sheska! Who would have thought she would go for a guy like Havoc?) were too busy being shy around each other to notice much of anything. Fuery and his date, though, were apparently more used to being together, and thus had eyes to spare for what was going on around them. Fuery grinned and waved at Isabelle, who waved back at him happily. To their other side, out on the dance floor, Ed was trying desperately not to step on Winry's toes while Al called out encouragement from the sidelines. The site of William and Isabelle distracted all of them, but even though Ed planted his automail foot firmly on Winry's delicate toes, neither really seemed to mind. Winry even raised her hand from Ed's shoulder long enough to give Isabelle a thumbs up. The other couple of importance on the dance floor, Roy and Riza, were far too absorbed in their slow dance to notice anything. Isabelle was glad about that, though -- it was about time those two got it through their heads that it was okay for them to be together.

They started off with a couple of glasses of hot cider to unfreeze poor Isabelle, who had been out in the cold for so long, then William set his glass down and held his hand out to her. "Care to dance?"

Isabelle looked out at the now nearly-full dance floor and watched the couples moving about, dancing one of Amestris's more complicated dances. "Umm…I don't really know any of these dances…" she replied sheepishly.

"Don't worry, I'll show you! It's easy." They waited for a new dance to begin, then William led her onto the dance floor and calmly began teaching her the dance. Isabelle was surprised to discover that indeed, William had been right. It was rather easy, once she got used to the rhythm. Before she knew it, and much to her surprise, they had taken over the middle of the dance floor. And then, without her even noticing how it happened. They were suddenly the only couple on the floor. Even Roy and Riza had stepped aside to watch.

The whole time, Isabelle kept her deep brown eyes locked on William's brilliant green ones and struggled to keep from blushing too much. As a child, she had often dreamt of the prince who would come to take her away to some far-off kingdom and make her his princess. Clichéd, she knew, but it had still been her dream. As time went on, though, her dream had shrunk, until all she dreamt of was having one decent date with a guy. So how was it that her first dream had managed to come true in such a spectacular way? Sure, William wasn't a true prince…but then, in her eyes at least, he was better than a prince. And it seemed that he would be hers, too, if she could just manage to not mess things up with him.

The dance ended, the other party-goers applauded the pair, and the two made a quick escape from the dance floor. The found a quiet corner in which to spend the rest of the evening, munching on holiday snacks, drinking holiday drinks, and discussing everything except Isabelle's work. All too soon for their liking, the party was over, and it was time to head home.

"You don't need a lift home, do you?" he asked as they stood at the side of the driveway, attempting to stay out of the way of the many cars that were pulling out.

"No, I came over with Falman and Breda, they'll bring me home. Thank you, though," she replied. "And William? Thank you for showing up tonight."

He smiled then, the biggest smile she had ever seen from him. "Thank you for asking me. I promise to be on time next time."

"Good! Because I won't wait in the snow for you again," she said teasingly. _Actually, William, I would wait for you in the snow again, for as long as I needed to… _

"Then I will have to make sure to keep my promise." He hesitated for a moment, started to lean forward, then paused. His eyes flitted to hers for just a second, then he raised her hand and gently kissed the back of it before turning and disappearing into the night. Isabelle just stood there, staring after him for a moment, before the car bearing Falman and Breda pulled up beside her.

"Isabelle! You coming?" Breda called from the passenger's seat.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" she exclaimed. Breda climbed out to let her have the front seat, and when the two were settled again, they headed off. Breda and Falman chatted happily the whole way, but Isabelle just stared dreamily out at the stars. _Well, I think that went quite well, all things considered._


	10. Chapter 10

Well, look at that. Ten chapters, over 550 hits, and 7 reviews (complete with loyal reviewers)! Hugs, plushies, and cookies for you all! **  
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**Chapter 10**

Isabelle sighed and took one last look around her room, making sure she had packed everything. Not that packing was all that difficult for her, really. She had been living in the dorms since her arrival in October of the previous year, hadn't bought much of anything since her arrival, and hadn't brought much with her to begin with. As a result, packing had been very easy. But she was paranoid about leaving important things behind.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright living with him?" Riza asked for about the hundredth time that day.

"She's right, you know. You shouldn't jump into this," Roy added from his spot beside the other woman.

Isabelle raised an eyebrow. "You two shouldn't talk. You moved in together in, what, January? After less than one month of official dating?"

"Yeah, but we knew each other for a long time before that!" Roy exclaimed. "You've only known this guy since November!"

"Then again, she _has_ been practically living in his library…" Riza added thoughtfully.

Roy looked at his girlfriend helplessly. "Yeah, but --"

"But nothing," Isabelle replied firmly but cheerfully. "Relax, Colonel, I'll be fine. Besides, it'll be good for me to get out of the dorms. And I'll have more time for research this way too!"

Roy finally gave up. "Need any help with anything?"

"Nah, Ed already brought my bags down, and Havoc's driving me over. Just cover for me for a couple of hours, okay? I'll be back this afternoon." Roy and Riza followed her out of the dorms and to the front gate, where Havoc was indeed waiting with one of the official cars. Isabelle grinned and climbed in, waving jauntily to the others as they sped off.

It was early April now, and the weather was surprisingly warm for the time of year. There were already buds on some of the trees, and spring was definitely in the air. The decision for Isabelle to move into William's house had been in the works for a month now, ever since the conversation in March where she had finally explained her research to him…

FLASHBACK

"I think I've figured it out."

She looked up at William as he perched on the table beside her. He was studying her quietly, a knowing look in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Your research. I think I've figured out what you're studying."

She leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh? Try me."

William handed her his latest translation effort. Across the first page were scrawled the words _Transmuting Human Beings_. "I've suspected it for a while now, based on some of the other stuff you've read…but this kind of confirmed it. There's no need for you to read this unless you're looking at human transmutation. So who is it?"

"What?" she asked, looking up from the book and not bothering to hide her shock. He had actually figured it out. She couldn't believe it.

"The person you're trying to bring back. Who is it?"

Isabelle sighed and set the translated book down. "Nobody," she replied. "I have nobody to bring back. I was…well, I wanted to see if I could make a person from scratch. Don't worry, I never tried it," she said upon hearing his shocked gasp. "It was just me being too lonely and desperate to think straight. So I started looking into human transmutation. I figured out pretty early on that I'd never be able to actually _make_ a person like that, but I found the whole field fascinating. Then I found out what happens when a transmutation is attempted…the lost body parts…the creation of Homunculi…and I though, what if there was a better way? What if a way could be found to transmute a human without so much damage? So that's what I've been doing ever since."

"And that's why you need this library." She nodded. William pondered that for a moment. "How far have you gotten?"

"Not as far as I'd like, I'm afraid. I just don't have enough time, really."

"You could move in here."

"I…what?" She blinked up at him in surprise.

"You could move in here. Then you could have a little more time with the books." He blushed. "And with me…"

Isabelle thought about that for a moment, then nodded and smiled, laying her hand gently over William's. "I'd like that."

END FLASHBACK

Since then, they had worked on setting up a room for her. She had taken over the bedroom closest to the library, the same one she had slept in that time she had fallen asleep there all those weeks ago. They had brought in a desk and a bookshelf for her to keep the books she was currently working with, as well as a lamp for use at night or on darker days. They had also opened the adjoining bathroom, which William (in his Envy persona) had never bothered to have Wrath clean. Isabelle had made quick work of it with alchemy, though, and was more than happy to finally have a bathroom to herself again.

And so it was that Isabelle Chamberlain found herself living with William Jones, her sort-of boyfriend. Boyfriend because she was madly in love with him, and, as far as she could tell, he was madly in love with her. Sort-of because they had yet to do anything most couples had done by now, like dating or kissing. Honestly, it was all her fault. She was too scared of making a mistake and losing him. But he respected her and insisted that she was the one to decide when things were going to happen, and so far both were pretty content with that.

It was a short time later, when the first flowers were appearing on some of the trees, that they had their first real date: a picnic in the park. It turned out that William's idea of a "picnic" involved cooking massive amounts of food beforehand, getting a bottle of expensive wine, and packing all of the food up with real silverware to bring with them to the park. Nothing like the finger-foods-only picnics Isabelle was used to from home. She had always hated those kind of picnics, but this…this was nice. And she actually enjoyed it. So much, in fact, that she didn't even protest when William insisted on renting a rowboat for the rest of the afternoon and bringing her out on the lake in the middle of the park.

They were rowing along quietly, Isabelle lying back and dangling her hand in the water, when William sighed. "I _knew_ I should have brought my sketchpad."

"Oh?" she asked, sitting up a bit and raising an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

"Because it's such a beautiful day, and you're such a beautiful person, and that would have made such a beautiful picture."

She laughed. "Well, I guess you'll just have to remember it for later, then, won't you?"

"I guess so!" he replied, resuming his rowing while she resumed her lounging.

They soon found themselves in a more secluded spot on the lake, surrounded by a group of cherry trees that were a bit ahead of the others. These particular trees were practically in full bloom. He stopped rowing and tilted his face up to admire the trees. A warm breeze blew then, dislodging a few petals from the trees and making them float down towards the couple. Several of them landed in the water, some landed in the boat, and a couple wound up in Isabelle's long hair. She was sitting up now, also admiring the trees, but she turned her attention to the petals lying in her hair and picked one off. William leaned forward to take the one that had landed right on top of her head and smiled at her.

"I can't believe other people have been so blind until now. How could anyone not see how special you are?"

Isabelle blushed. "I don't know…I've never really thought much about it"  
"Well, it's their loss," William said firmly. "Sucks to be them." Still smiling, he brushed his thumb lightly over her cheek. "Great for me, though."

"Stop it, you're embarrassing me," she said, tilting her head away and blushing even more. But she was smiling as she said it, and he chuckled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. It's just…I feel so very lucky to have met you. Really, I do."

"Oh William…" They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, and then, without any hesitation at all, they kissed. Isabelle found herself pressed tightly against William, reveling in the feeling of his lips on hers and in the feeling of his strong arms around her. And in that moment, she could have sworn she knew what it was like to be in heaven.

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The next few days went by in a happy blur for Isabelle, who spent much of her free time cuddling in William's arms. Actually, she spent much of her research time cuddling with him too, since reading and cuddling were rather easy to do simultaneously. Every so often he would insist on her sitting somewhere else, though, so he could sketch her. She didn't mind that, really. In fact, she found it rather flattering that he wanted to sketch her. No one else had ever asked her to model for their pictures before.

But then, the mysteries began. One night, she was woken up by the sound of strange voices coming from downstairs. But as she was still mostly asleep when she heard them and they had disappeared by the time she came fully awake, she assumed she had been dreaming and fell back to sleep. A few nights later she could have sworn she heard a door opening and closing downstairs, but once again she chalked it up to dreaming. It wasn't until two weeks after the initial incident, when she knew for sure that she was fully awake and had heard a door opening and closing, that she was also certain something was going on. But her investigations that night turned up nothing. She brushed it off until the following week, when, due to it being a particularly hot night, she left her door partly open to allow for some extra air circulation. She was woken up by the sound of something falling downstairs, and when just about to get up to investigate when she saw a figure walk silently past her door. Isabelle clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming and huddled under her blankets, closing her eyes as far as she could while still being able to see a little out of them. Sure enough, a few minutes later the first figure passed by going in the opposite direction, followed closely by another one. She listened carefully and followed the sounds of their footsteps down the stairs, then heard a door opening and closing, then silence. She lay in bed quietly for a good ten minutes, then slowly got up and crept to her door. Looking about carefully, she crept out into the hall and turned towards the other set of double doors on the floor. What had that figure been doing down there? But when she got there, she discovered that the doors were locked. Isabelle sighed, resting her forehead against the relatively cool wood. Had she imagined it all?

The sound of the door opening downstairs startled her out of her thoughts, and she scrambled back to her room as quietly as possible. She had just managed to pull her sheets back up far enough to look asleep when, once again, a figure passed her partly-open door. But this time it was alone, and after several minutes of waiting it didn't return. After a while, Isabelle fell into an uneasy sleep.

She confronted William about it the next morning. "Who was here last night?"

"What?" he asked, looking up from where he was cooking some French toast for them.

"I saw people walking past my door last night, and I could hear footsteps and doors opening and closing. Who was here last night?"

"Ah, love, there was no one here but us," he replied calmly. "You must have imagined it."

"Maybe, but I didn't imagine that other set of double doors being locked, did I?" He gave her a questioning look, and she continued, "I tried them last night, because I saw people going down that way. But they were locked. Why would you lock me out of part of the house."

"For your own safety."

Isabelle frowned. "What?"

"For your own safety," William repeated, turning the stove off and dividing the toast between two plates. "Parts of this house are older than others, and that's the really old wing. I lock those doors because there are a lot of dangerous spots in that area. I've been working on repairing them, but it's taking a while."

She raised an eyebrow. "I could just fix them with alchemy, you know."

"Sure," he replied, setting a plate in front of her and sitting down in the seat beside hers, "but you really shouldn't use alchemy for stuff like that if you can avoid it. Alchemy should be the path you take when all other paths have been tried and there are no other choices left. Or so my father used to say."

They ate in silence for a moment, then Isabelle asked softly, "Why didn't you ever tell me about that wing before?"

"Because you didn't ask," William replied with equal softness. "You seemed perfectly happy with the rest of the house being open to you, and never questioned me having those doors closed before. Look, as soon as I've finished this set of repairs, I'll bring you in there, okay? I think you're like it."

And so it was that she accepted that answer and went back to her happy existence of work, research, and spending time with William. And then, something happened to once again make her suspicious.

It was the last day of May when she arrived home from work to find a note on her pillow. She picked it up and read it quickly, frowning the whole time.

_Isabelle - Some friends of mine called this morning to let me know that one of my best friends from school is terribly ill in the hospital, and they're not sure if he'll last much longer. I've gone to visit him, and I don't plan on being back before the end of the week. You shouldn't need to go shopping or anything, there's plenty of food in the house. Oh, and I finished translating that last book for you. I left it with the others in the library.  
My friends don't have a phone in their house, so I'll have to find a public phone and call you later. Take care of yourself in my absence. I'll miss you while I'm gone._

_All my love, William._

"Well this is interesting," she muttered, setting the note down on her desk and leaving her room. She was about to go to the library when something caught her eye. The other set of double doors…the ones that were usually locked…didn't appear to be locked anymore. In fact, one of the doors was slightly ajar. Isabelle went to the library first, where she grabbed the large candelabra from the table (just in case she needed a weapon), and headed to the mysterious double doors. She carefully pushed it open and stepped inside.

Looking around, she gasped in surprise. The doors opened onto a short hallway lined with four doors, three of which were open. Light filtered in through the windows in each room. Stepping forward, she looked into the first door on her right. This was a bedroom. Could it be William's room? Isabelle had never seen where he slept before, and this room was certainly well-appointed enough to be his. The four-poster bed in it was even larger than hers, and everything seemed to be decorated in the most incredible shade of blood-red she had ever seen. A set of clothes lay neatly folded on top of the dresser by the window. She recognized them instantly as William's, lending support to her theory that this was his room. _Interesting_, she thought, and turned to the room across the hall. This one was larger than the bedroom, and it appeared to be some sort of workout or sparring room. The floors were well-padded, a large punching bag hung in the corner, and the only other furniture in the room was a narrow bench against the wall near the door. A small barrel sat beside the bench, holding a few of sparring sticks and practice swords, but that was all. The room beside it appeared to be a small storage room of some sort, but as that room was locked and she didn't feel like breaking in, she couldn't see what was in it. The fourth room, the one beside the bedroom, was open though, and it proved to be the most interesting.

This room was obviously a study of some sort. The centerpiece was the huge desk under the window. It appeared to be carved out of ebony, since it was mostly black but was definitely wood when she touched it. The bookshelves lining the walls were of the same material, though for the most part they didn't hold books. Instead, they were currently being used to store an assortment of knick-knacks that boggled her mind. Two of the books she had asked William to help her translate sat on the desk, with a third open to the last page he had been working on. His notebook and pen lay nearby, and she could see that he had been in the middle of translating when he left. Well, no point in trying to read a half-translated book. She sighed and shook her head, getting ready to leave, when something else on the desk caught her eye. It was a folder of medium thickness, resting on the corner of the desk. A paper was peaking out from beneath the folder's cover, and it appeared that the paper had been colored. She lifted the folder and opened it, staring down at the picture inside.

The first one on the pile was her, sitting by the fire in the living room and reading a book. The second picture in the stack was similar, though the foreground also featured an artist's eye view of the drawing process. The picture included a drawing of William's sketchbook, supported by one hand while the other hovered over the page, pencil at the ready. But while the sketchbook was William's and the scene was one she could remember happening, the hands pictured weren't his. They were more delicate than his hands, and they were covered by fingerless black gloves or wrist guards. She shook her head and flipped to the next picture, which surprised her even more. This one featured her cuddling with a William who didn't entirely look like William. Half of him looked like the man she knew, but the other half was much paler, with more rounded features, purple eyes, and wild green hair…and wearing the same fingerless wrist guards as the hands in the previous picture. Even more confused than she had been, she continued flipping through the pictures more and more frantically. Some showed just her, others showed her with William. Sometimes William looked normal, but very often he had strange features, like the wild green hair or the purple eyes. Some of the pictures didn't show William at all. The one from the night they had spent watching the meteor shower was an excellent example. It showed Isabelle cuddled up beside a slender being with pale skin and a rounded face, his wild green hair and purple eyes quite visible in the picture, both of them staring up at the sky in awe. _Who the hell is this guy?_

And then, she saw the last picture. It was a sketch of their first kiss. There she was with her William, who was looking very normal, kissing in the rowboat. But the reflection didn't show William. It showed the other man instead. _I need to show these to someone…I have no idea what it means. But who should I show them to? Of course! Why didn't you think of that sooner, Chamberlain?_

Tucking the folder firmly under her arm, Isabelle rushed from the room, down the stairs, out the front door, and back towards the base. Roy had procrastinated so much that day that he had been forced to work late, and Isabelle knew that Riza would be there waiting for him. Time to get Riza's opinion on some mysterious art.


	11. Chapter 11

I think I need to write more stories with "Envy the artist," since y'all seem to like this drawing thing. So then on to the chapter!

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**Chapter 11**

Riza tapped her pen impatiently on the desk and tried not to be too annoyed with Roy. She loved him to death, but really, he needed to stop procrastinating so much. At this rate, they'd be going out to dinner at midnight.

"Almost finished, I swear!" Roy's voice called from inside his office.

"I'll believe it when I see it, Colonel," Riza answered dryly.

Roy's answer was partly blocked by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. Riza dropped her pen and looked up as Isabelle appeared, looking upset and clutching a folder to her chest. "Isabelle? What are you doing here? I thought you went home."

"I did," the shorter woman answered. "But I need you to look at these and tell me what you think." She held the file out to Riza, who took it and started leafing through its contents.

"These are really good. Who did them?"

"Supposedly William," Isabelle replied. "But look." She took the file back and pulled out the picture showing the artist drawing her. "I remember him drawing this picture of me. But those aren't his hands, and he never wears gloves like that. Or this one," she handed Riza the one of herself cuddling with the half-William. "I mean, what is that? Oh, these two are the best." Isabelle laid two pictures on the desk -- the one of her stargazing with the not-William and the one of her kissing William in the rowboat while her reflection kissed not-William. "What am I supposed to make of these?"

Riza studied the pictures and frowned, getting a very bad feeling. "Roy? You need come out here and see this."

"But I'm almost finished with these papers!"

"This is more important than the papers," Riza snapped. Moments later, Roy appeared in the door to his office, looking concerned. Riza didn't snap at him for no reason.

"What's going on?"

Riza turned to him, holding up some of the pictures. "Look at these. Have you ever seen anyone like that?"

Roy took the pictures and frowned down at them. "This does look familiar…" His head jerked up suddenly and his eyes widened in shock. "No way," he muttered, and without another work he turned back into his office. Isabelle and Riza exchanged a confused look before following him. They found Roy in front of his filing cabinet, pulling files out and tossing them aside as he went. "This one maybe…no, that's from Hughes, I need the one from Fullmetal…don't tell me I didn't keep a copy of it…yes! There is it!" He scrutinized both pictures, then looked up, a concerned frown plastered across his normally handsome features. "Riza, call Fullmetal for me please. Isabelle, call Hughes and tell him to come in immediately, it's urgent. Tell him to get Havoc on the way. Oh, and Riza, call Fuery and tell him to come with Falman and Breda too."

They nodded and placed their calls as quickly as possible, while Roy continued digging through his files, pulling out more as he went and setting them on his desk. They didn't have too long to wait for anyone, as Hughes and Havoc didn't live too far away and the others lived in the dorms. They arrived quickly and gathered in Roy's office, confused and concerned and wondering why their commander had called them in after hours.

"Fullmetal, you remember this report of yours, right?" Roy asked, handing Ed the first file he had found.

Ed took it, glanced at it quickly, and nodded. "What about it?"

"Does this look familiar to you?"

The blonde teen took the sketch from Roy, glanced at it, then stared and gasped. "Envy," he breathed.

"Envy?" Isabelle asked.

Ed nodded. "Envy's one of the Homunculi. Where'd you get this, Colonel?"

Roy nodded to Isabelle. "From her. She says William drew it."

Hughes leaned over Ed's shoulder to study the picture. "But that doesn't make any sense. Why would he sketch Isabelle with Envy?"

"Maybe he _is_ Envy," Fuery said from where he was sitting on the couch beside Riza, studying the pictures of combined William and not-William. "I mean, look at this one, where he's half William and half Envy. It leads me to believe that they're the same person."

"But that doesn't make any _sense_," Isabelle insisted. "Envy and William look nothing alike!"

"That doesn't matter," Ed replied softly. "Envy's skill is shape-shifting. He can take on any form, look and sound like anyone he wants."

The group of friends sat in silence for a long while, trying to figure out what to do with this new information. Finally, Roy asked, "Where did you get these sketches? Did he give them to you?"

"What? Oh, no, I found them in the locked wing."

"Er…" Roy exchanged a nervous look with Hughes. "The locked wing?"

Isabelle nodded. "There's a wing of the house he usually keeps locked. He told me it was dangerous in there and that he was making repairs. But when I came home today he wasn't there, and when I went upstairs the doors to that wing were ajar. So I went in. The pictures were out on the desk in the study."

"We better get you home, then, or he'll get suspicious if he comes home and doesn't find you," Ed said.

"That's not going to happen. The note he left said he'd be gone for the week."

Roy looked thoughtful. "Gone for the week, huh? Did he say where?"

She shrugged. "To visit friends. He said he'd call."

"How much do you want to bet he's gone to see his Homunculus buddies?" Hughes growled.

"Now wait a minute, I'm still not convinced that he's this Envy," Isabelle growled back. "You have to give me better proof than this."

"Can we search the place?" Havoc asked.

"Not without a warrant," Breda replied.

"Actually," Hughes said thoughtfully, "all we need is the permission of one of the residents." At that, everyone turned expectantly towards Isabelle, who balked at first, but then sighed in resignation and nodded.

"Right then," Roy said, clapping his hands together. "Let's get going. Fuery, grab some lanterns and flashlight. Breda, Falman, get some evidence kits. Havoc, Riza, Hughes, bring some cars around. Oh, and Fuery, get a kit for tapping the phone lines. I want to know if he calls her."

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It was raining hard by the time they arrived back at William's house. Isabelle ran up to the front door, unlocked it, and propped it open before motioning the others forward. They too ran up the steps, clutching umbrellas and attempting to guard their equipment. Once they and all their things were inside, Isabelle closed and locked the door.

"Aren't there any lights in this place?" Havoc asked sourly.

She shook her head. "We use candles. He said the place was too old to install electricity easily."

Roy felt around for a bit before finding a candle, then snapped his fingers and lit it instantly. He used the candle to light a few more, then handed those out and directed the others to light as many candles around the place as they could find. They headed off in pairs, Roy with Riza, Havoc with Fuery, Falman with Breda, Alphonse with Hughes, and Isabelle with Ed. They made quick work of both levels (though Isabelle insisted that it was pointless to light all of the candles in the library and refused to do so) and gathered again at the foot of the stairs.

"So, where do you want to start?" Isabelle asked, holding the candelabra from the library aloft. They all turned to Hughes, who had more experience with such things.

He thought for a moment, rubbing his chin and squinting at the stairs. "Let's start with that locked wing of yours," he finally decided. Isabelle nodded and turned, leading the group up the stairs and to the left. They crowded in behind her as she rested her hand on the handle. She glanced up as Roy reached past her, planning on telling him off for trying to push her aside, but then she noticed that he looked ready to snap his fingers. He was defending her. She heard the quiet rasp of metal against leather and new that Riza had drawn her gun. To her other side, Ed raised his hands and held them mere centimeters apart, prepared to use his alchemy in an instant. _Right then. Looks like we're ready._ With that final thought, she pressed down on the handle and pulled the door open.

They stood there for a moment, apparently waiting for something to happen, but it soon became obvious that they were waiting in vain. Roy dropped his hand and stepped around Isabelle, while Riza put her gun away and Ed relaxed out of his tense stance. "Let's see what we have here," Roy murmured. The others lit their lanterns and followed him in.

Ed poked his head into what Isabelle had decided was the workout room. "That explains how he keeps in shape," the young alchemist muttered. Breda and Falman slipped past him to examine that room, while Riza followed Havoc into the large bedroom. Isabelle continued following Roy until he arrived at the study. She was watching him poke around the desk when Havoc called them from the bedroom.

"Hey! I think I found something!"

She and Roy exchanged a surprised look, then quickly returned to the bedroom. Havoc was standing by the bedside table, holding a small notebook in his hands while Riza stood beside him holding the lantern. Havoc flipped through a couple of pages, frowning, then looked up at the others. "I think it's his diary. Listen to this," he cleared his throat before continuing. "April 3: Isabelle has moved in now. Must be particularly careful to not arouse suspicion. She wouldn't be too happy about my real identity. April 29: She's getting suspicious. I _told_ the others not to come looking for me here, but they won't listen, and now Isabelle has seen them. I've convinced her it was a dream, but I don't think she believes me. May 5: Lust keeps bothering me about Isabelle. Seems like Lust is getting suspicious too. Must be cautious during my trip with the others next week. Am scared that things are starting to unravel." Havoc looked up. "I think this proves our suspicions."

They all stood there in silence for several moments, Roy taking the journal from Havoc and flipping through it. The only sounds were those of the pages turning and the occasional noises from Falman and Breda's investigation of the workout room.

_BRRRRRRRRING_! The sudden noise shocked everyone into action. Isabelle shrieked, or rather she tried to, but the sound was cut short by Ed grabbing her shirt and yanking her to the floor, where he huddled over her protectively. Riza's gun was trained on the door in an instant, and the others had scrambled aside to give her a clear shot. Across the hall, Falman and Breda appeared in the workout room's door, each clutching one of the practice weapons.

_BRRRRRRRING! BRRRRRRRRING!_

Isabelle gasped. "Let me up, Ed, it's the phone!" With that she scrambled to her feet and rushed out the door, down the stairs, and into the kitchen, where the house's only phone hung on the wall. Ed followed her, just to be safe.

"Ack…Hello? Oh, hi William…what?… No, no, I'm fine, I was just in the library…yes of course I'll have dinner, don't worry about that. How's your friend?…Well, at least he's feeling better. Will you be home early then?…No? Well, I guess I'll see you at the end of the week then…Say that again? Oh, ok. Yes, I'll remember. Alright, love, I'll talk to you later."

"That was him?" Ed asked.

"Yeah," Isabelle replied. "He was just telling me when he'll be back and making sure I eat…I tend to forget to eat when I get into my work." She sighed sadly and rubbed at her eyes.

Ed stepped forward and rested his left hand on her arm. "Are you ok?"

She nodded, then stopped and shook her head. "Oh, Ed, how can this be real?" she whimpered. "I can't believe that William and Envy are the same person! Envy's a monster, but William is…not. He loves me! No one else loves me like he does. And I love him. What am I supposed to think right now?"

"Maybe we've been wrong about Envy," Ed said. "Maybe he's more complicated than we thought. But look, we have to finish this search. Come on. Let's go back to the others."

They headed back up the stairs, Ed with his arm around Isabelle's shoulders and Isabelle with her head bowed the whole way. When they arrived, it was to find the others huddled around the last door in the extra wing. They stepped aside to let Isabelle through, and she moved to stand beside Roy. There, she saw Hughes and Fuery kneeling in front of the door, attempting to pick the lock. "What's going on?" she asked.

"We want to see what's in there," Roy replied. "Any ideas?"

"No. It was locked the last time I was in here too."

"Got it!" Fuery said triumphantly, handing the tools back to Hughes and standing again. He pulled open the door and peered inside, then took a surprised step back.

"What is it?" Roy asked.

Hughes leaned forward to look. "Er…well, it looks like a small closet…and there's a coffin in there."

Silence. "A coffin?" Riza repeated.

"Yep," Hughes said. He sighed. "Havoc, help me with this please."

"You're not going to open it, are you?" Isabelle balked.

"We have to," Hughes said apologetically. "You don't have to look if you don't want to."

Isabelle turned away, wincing and pushing her way through the small group to stand at the back. Behind her, Havoc said, "Ready? Alright then…here we go…"

A few grunts later, she heard the lid clatter to the floor. "Isabelle, it's ok," Ed said softly beside her. "It's just a skeleton."

"Gives new meaning to having skeletons in the closet," Roy muttered. "Well, it looks too old to be a recent murder. Now what?"

Hughes nodded. "I don't see any evidence of trauma or anything. I'd say this guy died peacefully."

"Yeah, but why keep the body in a closet?" Riza asked.

"Maybe it's Envy's old body," Ed spoke up. "Maybe he planned to make Isabelle transmute it or something."

"Either way, I think we need to leave it here. He's sure notice if it goes missing," Isabelle said.

Roy nodded. "It's a chance we can't take. Havoc, Fuery, Hughes, good work. Let's get that put away and the closet locked again and head back to the office. Isabelle, go pack your things."

"I…what?"

"Go pack your things. At least some of them, anyway. I don't think you should stay here anymore."

Isabelle sighed and nodded sadly. "All right. I'll go pack."


	12. Chapter 12

Sorry thi**s **one is a bit on the short side...but it is still an update, yes? The next one should be a bit longer. Don't forget to review! Remember: no reviews makes chibi!Envy cry...

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**Chapter 12**

A week later, Isabelle sighed and stared out the window of her room at the dorms. It was getting late -- almost time for William to come home. Or Envy. Or whatever his name was.

She had been living in the dorms since the search of the house at the beginning of the week. None of it really added up in her mind, and she had no idea what to do about anything anymore. At least, she didn't at the beginning of the week. But she had since come to a conclusion. She needed to talk to William. Alone.

And so it was that tonight, on the night he was to return, Isabelle planned to sneak out. She went to dinner with the others as usual, then headed back to her room to study (also as usual). But instead, she had grabbed her coat and the folder of sketches. Slipping into her coat and tucking the folder inside, where it wouldn't fall out or get damaged, she pushed her window open and slipped out. Good thing she lived on the ground floor, as trying to get out from any of the upper floors would have been a real pain.

Isabelle made her way to the back of the base, where a gate that was much smaller and less grand than the front gate waited for her. She panicked for a second when she discovered that it was locked, but decided that climbing over the fence wouldn't be too much of a problem, and somehow managed to do so without hurting herself or attracting any attention.

Once she was over the fence, she made her way to William's house as quickly as possible. Somehow, she managed to arrive before he did, and she spent the extra time huddled on the couch in the sitting room, wondering how exactly she was going to talk about this with him. After all, it wasn't like she could just accuse him of being a Homunculus.

In the end, she didn't have much time to really ponder the problem, for half an hour later she heard the sound of the front door being opened. Isabelle stood slowly and made her way into the entry hall, folder clutched to her chest, to see the familiar site of William hanging his coat by the door. He looked up at her and grinned, green eyes sparkling in the dim light. Before she could even say a word he had crossed the entry hall and swept her up in his arms, kissing her passionately. "Oh, I missed you so much, love," he whispered.

She slowly wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. "I missed you too, William," she whispered back. "But…we need to talk about something."

"Oh?" he asked, letting go of her. "What's wrong?"

Isabelle took a deep breath. "You don't have something you want to tell me, do you?"

William looked positively bewildered. "Such as…?

She sighed and held up the folder. "Such as this. Or, more specifically," and here she pulled the picture of them in the boat out and handed it to him, "the identity of this guy." She tapped the imaged of the man reflected in the water. "Because he certainly isn't you, and I've never seen him before."

He stared down at the picture in shock for a moment, then closed his eyes. "Where did you find this? You went into the locked wing, didn't you?"

"Sort of. After you left, I noticed that the door was open, and I got curious. I'm sorry, William, but I have to know. I…showed the pictures to Riza and the others…they think you're some guy named Envy! But that can't be true, right?" she blurted.

"Of course it's true," a woman's voice said from the top of the stairs. The couple turned to see a tall woman with thick, dark hair, pale skin, and a perfect figure slowly descending the stairs towards them. A person who looked very much like a young child was leering down at them from his spot at the top of the stairs, while the much fatter, bald being beside him was drooling and repeating "Can I eat her? Can I eat her?" over and over.

"Lust!" William exclaimed, pushing Isabelle behind him and holding his arms out as though to shield her. The woman made it to the bottom of the stairs and took a couple of steps towards them.

"Really, Envy, I'm shocked at you. I actually believed you the first few times you told me it was all a ruse, but after seeing this, I'm not so sure we can trust you. We'll be taking the girl now. Her research has gone on long enough. We can use her, you know."

"Like hell I'm going to let you have her," William growled.

Lust just smiled. "We're not giving you a choice." Without warning, she pointed her finger at his thigh. Said finger lengthened and sharpened in an instant, piercing through the fabric of his pants and burying itself in his flesh. William shrieked and fell to his knees. Then, much to Isabelle's shock, a band of light crackled into existence at his feet and worked its way up his body. The man she knew as William vanished beneath the light, revealing instead the green-haired being from the pictures. It was indeed Envy.

Without thinking, Isabelle dropped the folder and lunged for the nearest table, where they kept paper and pens for writing notes. She needed something to draw a transmutation circle with. It was her only chance. But she never got the chance, for just as she was about to reach the table a foot came out of nowhere and sent her sailing into the wall instead. Isabelle grunted and shook her head sharply, trying to dispel the stars that had suddenly appeared before her eyes, then blinked up at her attacker. It was the young boy from the top of the stairs. He grinned down at her triumphantly, but that didn't last too long. Despite the injury to his leg (which Isabelle could now see had appeared in the center of a red mark on his thigh), Envy had struggled to his feet and come up behind the boy. The smaller being had only a moment in which to look panicked before one of Envy's slim but strong arms wrapped around his neck.

"Wrath, I swear, if you hurt her I _will_ find a way to perform alchemy and I _will_ alchemize your sorry ass out of existence," he growled.

The boy called Wrath just laughed. "Like you'd ever get the chance. Greed! C'mon, hurry up!"

"Of course," a new voice said, before another man appeared in Isabelle's line of vision. He was carrying something long and white… _Good god, is that a bone_? Before Isabelle could so much as open her mouth, he had shoved the bone into Envy's line of vision, causing the Homunculus to freeze instantly.

"William!" she shouted, jumping to her feet. Or rather, she tried to jump up, but the new man just backhanded her and she once again found herself on the floor.

"There's no one named William here, girl," he said. "Just us Homunculi, and we're all named for sins. It's fitting, I guess, seeing as we _are_ sins. Hey Pride, you wanna take care of her? We need her out of the way."

"Hello, Miss Chamberlain. I do hope you'll just come with us quietly and stop causing trouble." Now that voice was familiar. Isabelle looked up to see the speaker, and gasped. It was the Fuhrer! Was he really one of them too?

"Like hell I will," she ground out, pushing herself to her knees and lunging for the Fuhrer's legs. But it was a futile move, for he just took a step out of the way, then bent and caught her beneath the arms, picking her up easily.

Lust stalked forward to study her and smiled. "Well then. I think it's time for us to get you out of here, and put you to work. Pride says your research is almost perfect…that's good enough for us. Time to finally make use of that alchemy of yours to make us human again!" With that, the woman turned and headed for the stairs. But she didn't take the stairs. Instead, she headed for the wall behind them, where she pressed her hand to a particular spot. The wall popped out, and she stepped aside. "After you, Pride."

Pride nodded and stepped forward, heading for the new opening in the wall. At that point Isabelle really started struggling. She didn't like this one bit. "Dammit, put me down! When the government hears about this you're going to be in so much trouble..I said let me go! Right now! William…WILLIAM!!" But there was no one to help her.


	13. Chapter 13

Dun-dun-_dun!_ A new chapter for you, wherein a bunch of stuff happens :p Wanna know what stuff? Then read on, and don't forget to review!

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**Chapter 13**

The door to Roy's office slammed open without warning, and Riza strode in, followed closely by Havoc, Hughes, Ed, Al, Fuery, Falman, and Breda. Even Black Hayate joined the group, much to Breda's dismay. Roy looked up, eyes widening in surprise at the party that had suddenly invaded his office.

Riza made it all the way to his desk, planting her hands firmly on it and leaning over to stare right into his eyes. "Isabelle didn't show up for work this morning."

Roy pointed to his clock. "It's still morning, Riza, it's only 10:30."

"That's not the point. She's never been this late in her life, so I sent Fuery to find her, and she's gone."

"Gone?" Roy repeated, alarmed. "What do you mean, gone?"

"She wasn't there," Fuery said. "And her window was open."

"We think she snuck out to go see William," Hughes added.

Roy sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. "And idea how long she's been gone?"

The others shook their heads, though Ed added, "I think she said William was supposed to come home last night."

The Colonel stared at him. "You mean to tell me she might have left last night and nobody noticed until now? Good god, no wonder she used to think we hated her! Alright, we have to go find her. Let's form teams and --"

Riza interrupted him with a wave of her hand. "What's the point of that? We know where she probably went, so let's go look there first. If we don't find her, then we can form teams and look elsewhere."

"Ok, fine, we're following Riza's plan. We're going to William's house, now"  
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The first thing they discovered upon arriving was that the door was locked.

"C'mon, Ed, can't you just make us a key?" Havoc asked impatiently.

Ed glared at him. "I can't just make a key out of nothing, and we don't even know what kind of key we need here, genius."

"I could pick the lock again…" Fuery said thoughtfully.

"Why not just deconstruct the lock, Nii-san?" Al suggested.

The older Elric nodded. "That'll be faster. Ok, everyone, look out." He stepped up to the door, clapped his hands together, and pressed them to the door. With a flash, the lock vanished, allowing Ed to push the door open. They all headed inside --

-- only to almost wind up in a heap when Ed tripped over something and fell right in front of everyone. "Dammit!" he shouted, scrambling out of the way.

"I can't see _anything_," Breda declared.

"None of us can," Hughes replied dryly. "You alright, Ed?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just find a candle or something. Al, get out of the door, you're blocking the light."

"Right, Nii-san!" Al stepped aside, then turned towards where the window should have been. He had seen the windows on the outside, after all, so they must be here. He finally found one and pulled the covering from it. The light from the window combined with that coming in through the door to make things a bit more visible. Al continued on to the next window, while on the other side of the door Falman pulled the coverings from another set of windows. Finally, they could see what Ed had tripped over. Or rather, they could see many possibilities for what Ed had tripped over.

"My god, what happened here?" Hughes whispered.

"Looks like someone had quite a fight," Fuery replied.

Ed let his eyes roam over candles, candleholders, pieces of broken furniture, and random sketches that littered the floor. Could Envy and Isabelle have done this? But then where were they?

A sudden low growling noise caught his attention and he turned, searching for the source. The first thing he noticed was the pile of bones dumped unceremoniously on the floor. And just behind them, attached to the wall by three long metal rods though his chest and shoulders and a fourth through the Ouroborus on his leg, was Envy. He was obviously unable to move, though Ed could notice a constant tremor in his body as he fought to free himself.

"Envy!" Ed exclaimed. The others turned at that, some gasping when they saw the Homunculus against the wall.

"Get those bones out of here!" Roy barked. Fuery and Falman rushed forward, Falman shedding his jacket so they had something to carry the bones in. It took them a couple of minutes to make sure they had all the pieces, but the moment they took the bones out of Envy's line of vision, the Homunculus slumped forward against the metal rods holding him to the wall and gasped for breath.

"Chibi…" he panted once he had gotten some energy back, "get these rods out of me."

Ed crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Envy. "And just why, exactly, should we trust you?"

Envy glared right back at him. "We could start with the complete lack of attacks on you and your friends here for the past several months. Or hadn't you noticed that?"

They continued glaring at each other for a while. But finally, Ed sighed and shook his head. "Fine then. But you have a _lot_ of explaining to do." He stepped forward and pulled the metal rods out one at a time, freeing Envy from his spot on the wall. The Homunculus slumped on the floor for a moment, rubbing his Ouroborus and wincing

"Now, talk," Roy said, coming to stand next to Ed and crossing his arms over his chest.

"No time," Envy grunted, climbing to his feet and turning towards the stairs. But the others moved to block him, and Fuery darted off to where they had set Envy's bones, grabbing one and preparing to brandish it at the green-haired being. Envy frowned sourly, then sighed and turned to the others. "Fine, chibi-in-glasses, put the bone down and I'll talk." Fuery started to protest at being called a chibi-in-glasses, but Riza shushed him. Envy, meanwhile, folded his arms over his chest and began to slowly pace back and forth within the confines of the small space the group was allowing him.

"We really need you to tell us everything you can," Hughes prompted.

"And remember, the more time you spend procrastinating, the later we'll get to Isabelle," Ed pointed out.

Envy nodded. "I suppose I'll start at the beginning, then. Last February, Pride showed up in the mansion in the underground city looking all excited about…something. He wouldn't tell us what, at first, but we could all tell it was big."

"Wait, Pride?" Roy interrupted.

"Underground city?" Hughes added.

"The underground city is the old city," Envy replied with a grim smile. "See, four hundred years ago, right around the time I was created, my parents succeeded in creating a true Philosopher's Stone. It took every life in the city to do it, so they had to find some way to hide what had happened. They buried the city -- made it disappear, really. All the buildings still exist under the foundations of Central City, though, and we use the biggest of them as our base. We call it the mansion." He glanced at Roy. "Pride's one of us. You all know him, actually. He's your Fuhrer."

The others gasped in shock. "So you mean the government is under the control of the Homunculi?" Riza exclaimed.

Envy nodded, then gave her a sour look. "Do you people want to know about me and Isabelle or about the history of the Homunculi in Central? You only get one story out of me today."

"Right," Roy said grimly. "You were saying?"

"Well, at first, Pride wouldn't tell us what he was so happy about," Envy continued. "Then one day he told us about the new State Alchemist who was doing research on human transmutation. Apparently her original goal had been to create a new human from scratch, but she had decided to focus on developing safer methods for performing standard transmutations instead. Pride said her research could help make us human. We didn't hear anything else about it for months. Then in October, Pride told us she had finally arrived in Central, told us her alchemist's name, and ordered us not to interfere with her. So we left her alone.

He paused, looking down at one of the sketched lying amidst the rubble on the floor. "I met her on November," he continued softly. "I was getting impatient, so I started looking around for ways to…speed things up a little. I don't care either way about becoming human again, but the others do, and if they become human it'll get them out of my hair. I wound up at the library of the International Society for Alchemical Research, where I discovered a girl arguing with the librarian over getting into the restricted section. That's where they keep all the really old texts. She wanted to get in, but they wouldn't let her. Then I had a brainstorm -- years ago, I had taken over this house as a place to put all my father's old things so I didn't have to look at them. I knew there were a lot of old texts in this library, so I offered to let her use it. I figured that she would do all the hard work of research, and I could just take it all when she was finished. I had no idea Isabelle was the girl Pride had been talking about until later, until the others asked me about her and Pride told me who she was. I should have figured it out sooner, I suppose, but I didn't.

"And she didn't figure out who you were, obviously," Fuery murmured.

"Of course not, she had no reason to," Envy replied. "She had no reason to suspect that William wasn't who he said."

Ed glared at him. "Not that lying to her was any problem for you," he growled.

Envy glared right back. "Not at first, pipsqueak, but as surprising as it might seem to you, I _do_ have morals. Or rather, I _used_ to have morals, and being William again helped me get some of them back."

Ed lunged at Envy -- or at least, he tried to. Hughes and Havoc had known what was coming, and managed to hold him back. Despite Ed's annoyed shouts and his struggle for freedom, Roy continued questioning Envy. "What do you mean by 'being William again'?"

"I don't have time to spell it all out for you," Envy snapped. "But listen to me -- it's because of me and my feelings for Isabelle that none of you have been attacked in months. It's because I was able to convince the others that it was all a ruse that they happily left you alone until now. And it's because it _wasn't_ a ruse that they eventually saw right through me and came to capture Isabelle last night. So if you'll forgive my impatience --"

"They came for her _last night_?" Ed exclaimed, stopping his frantic struggle against Havoc and Hughes.

Envy rolled his eyes. "Has your lack of height killed your ability to think things through? Did you really think it happened five minutes ago? They're Homunculi, not idiots. Well, Gluttony isn't all that bright, but Greed and Lust and Pride are pretty smart. They've had this planned for a while, trust me."

Hughes let go of Ed's arm. "Any idea where they've taken her?"

"Probably the underground city," Envy replied.

"Great," Roy replied. "Let's go."

Falman held up a hand. "Shouldn't we call for backup first?"

"No time," Hughes said grimly. "They've had her since last night. She might already be dead."


	14. Chapter 14

** Chapter 14**

Isabelle lifted her head just enough to really look at the woman standing before her. Not that she got a good look, though, for the moment she moved her head, the woman's palm struck her cheek again, this time snapping her head violently to the right.

"You know," the voice that belonged to the small boy said from somewhere in front of her, "it would be a lot easier on you if you would just do what Lust says."

"You don't get it," she said weakly. "I _can't_ do what she's asking. It's not safe."

"Not safe for _you_, you mean," a man's voice corrected. "But we don't really _care_ about you."

She rolled her eyes up until she could see the room in front of her without moving her aching head. The boy was sitting cross-legged on the floor, tracing patterns in the dust with his finger. He looked up at her and gave her a wicked smirk that no being his age should have been able to give. Beside him stood the man who had just spoken, leering at her. Though glasses obscured his eyes, she could still see the look of sheer cruelty they contained.

A third man appeared, and Isabelle couldn't help but gasp sharply when she recognized him as the Fuhrer. "Now, now, Greed, we do care if it's not safe for her. She needs to stay alive long enough to accomplish all of the tasks we set her."

Greed snorted. "I'm sure _he_ can keep her alive just fine"

"Except that _he_ isn't here and refused to have a part in this anyway," Lust pointed out from her spot beside Isabelle.

"Can I eat her?" Gluttony asked for probably the thousandth time since they had arrived here hours ago. As usual, his question was ignored.

"It's not safe for _anyone_," Isabelle told them. "I haven't tested the theory yet. I don't really know what will happen if I try to re-transmute any of you."

Pride shook his head and held up a notebook. "This is yours, isn't it? Because it says…right here…" he opened the notebook to a page near the end, "that you think the theory has been perfected. You've even drawn a small version of the transmutation circle you would need to complete the process!"

"There, see?" Lust said. "Stop lying to us."

"I'm not lying!" Isabelle shouted.

That was a mistake. The next thing she knew, she was sprawled on the ground, staring up at Wrath, who had taken it upon himself to spend a good two minutes at least attempting to pound the life out of her. It was only Lust's shouted reminders of what he could lose if Isabelle died combined with Greed's finally-successful attempt at pulling the smaller Homunculus off the human girl that made him stop. Isabelle moaned weakly and took stock of her injuries. A split lip, probably a broken nose, an almost-dislocated shoulder, serious damage to her wrists and elbows, a few cracked ribs, possibly some internal bruises, a dull ache in one leg that indicated something was very wrong, and a strange tingling feeling in her lower half that seemed to have its cause in the sharp pain in the middle of her lower back. And that was with Wrath apparently holding back a little. She was panting hard, trying to catch her breath without breathing too deeply, when Greed's face once again appeared above hers.

"Now, little one. Are you going to behave?" Something sharp jabbed her in the ribcage. "Or is Lust here going to have to make some new holes in your body?"

"I…can't…do…it…" she ground out, immediately followed by a sharp but truncated shriek as Lust extended her claws into Isabelle's body and pierced her lung.

Greed sighed as Lust stood. "It's no use," he said. "She won't do it. Not that she could in this condition anyway."

"Very true," Lust agreed. She sighed. "Well, we do have her research. It shouldn't be too much of a problem to find someone else willing and able to make use of it."

The others nodded in agreement. "Lust, can I eat her?" Gluttony asked yet again.

Lust shrugged. "Sure. Enjoy."

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"You still haven't explained what you mean by 'being William again'," Ed's voice hissed.

"And I'm not _going_ to, chibi," Envy's voice hissed back.

"But _why_?"

"Why do you _care_?"

"It's called curiosity, baka."

"Well, go be curious about something else. You wouldn't believe me if I told you anyway."

Behind them, Hughes cleared his throat and dug his fingers into Ed's shoulder. "Shouldn't you two be quiet? What if they've left a lookout?"

"Trust me, there won't be a lookout," Envy replied.

"How do you know?" Roy's voice asked from farther back in the dark tunnel.

Envy paused just long enough to let the others know they should be cautious during this part of the journey, then said, "Because I know how they think. They're going to assume that you couldn't possibly pass up the chance to take me back to headquarters, and therefore you wouldn't possibly find the secret passage to the underground city until it was too late. That, and they've probably left Sloth behind in the office to make sure nothing suspicious happens, but I doubt she'll have gone to check on you yet. Chibi, keep your hand on my shoulder or you'll get lost."

"How can I get lost in a tunnel?" Ed mumbled.

Envy reached back and patted his arm. "Someone as tiny as you could get lost anywhere, chibi."

Ed bristled at that, but managed to keep his temper under control and his hand planted firmly on Envy's shoulder. They had been walking like this, single file in the pitch black, each person resting a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them, for about five minutes. They had tried to bring candles, but the tunnel was damp and drafty, so the light hadn't lasted long. Roy hadn't been of any use either, and had finally resorted to taking his ignition fabric gloves off and stuffing them in his uniform pocket in the hopes of keeping them drier. Envy didn't care about the lack of light. He had walked this path hundreds of times, perhaps even thousands of times, and knew every inch of it. But the others didn't share his level of comfort, and he knew it. Better to go slowly and be cautious than to lose one of them to an injury.

"How much further do we have to go?" Fuery asked. His voice trembled with ill-contained fear.

"Not too much," Envy replied.

After that, they walked in silence, with only the occasional muffled curse when someone almost tripped interrupting their thoughts. Finally, after another ten minutes or so, Envy stopped. "Let go of my shoulder, Fullmetal."

"What? No way!"

"I said let go," Envy growled, reaching up and pushing Ed's hand off his shoulder. Before Ed could protest, Envy stepped out of the way. Ed flailed around for a second, trying to find Envy, but he stopped when he heard a sharp grunt from the other man, followed by the grinding sound of heavy doors opening. A sliver of dim light appeared in front of them (though it seemed very bright, given how much time they had spent in the dark). The sliver grew wider and wider, finally highlighting Envy as he pushed open a set of thick double doors. Once the doors were wide enough for them to get through, he stepped forward into the light and threw a glance over his shoulder at them "We're here."

The others left the tunnel and joined Envy on the balcony-like area at which they had arrived, staring down in awe at the city spread out beneath them.

"Where are we headed down there?" Riza asked.

"Right there," Envy replied, pointing at the largest building in the area. "Hurry."

They once again found themselves following him as he rushed off. Since they could all actually see now, it was possible to travel much more quickly. Plus, Envy knew some good shortcuts. It required the group to slide down steep hills, scramble across some rooftops, and jump across gaps between buildings, but they managed and arrived at the front of the huge mansion in good time. Envy didn't bother waiting for them. He shoved the doors open --

-- and came to a sudden halt, staring in horror at the sight before them. For a second, Ed thought Envy had somehow been frozen again, but he was proven wrong when the Homunculus came back to his senses and lunged forward, shouting, "NO!"

The shout startled the other Homunculi, whose heads jerked up and towards the sound of the shout. All except for Gluttony, that is, who was too busy contemplating his next meal to care. He opened his mouth wide, hovering over Isabelle's ample midsection, but before he got to take a bite Envy slammed into him at full speed, driving him sideways and away from Isabelle.

"Aren't you attacking the wrong person?" Lust asked dryly.

Envy slammed his fist into Gluttony's temple, dazing the fat Homunculus. "You're right, Gluttony's hardly the mastermind here," he snapped. "I'll deal with you in a minute."

Meanwhile, the others had begun attacking the Homunculi, who were fighting back spectacularly. Roy was locked in a furious battle with Greed, who was dodging Roy's fire like it was nothing. Hughes and Havoc were doing their best against the Fuhrer, who was still managing to drive them steadily towards the wall. Envy finally immobilized Gluttony, turning just in time to see Wrath charging Riza.

"Watch it! The kid can use alchemy!" he shouted.

Riza's eyes widened for a moment, but she quickly recovered and took aim at Wrath, who was dodging back and forth at random. She got off a shot, which whizzed by Wrath's head. The small Homunculus leapt at her then, but he never connected, for Al slid in front of Riza and blocked Wrath's attack. Riza shouted a quick thanks to Al and headed off to help Hughes and Havoc.

The battle was fierce and furious. Fuery was knocked out of the fight in the first few minutes, when Lust landed a blow to the side of his head. Havoc went down next, stabbed in the leg by the Fuhrer's sword. Breda and Falman were fine until Wrath decided he wanted an easier target than Al. The two found themselves in a heap by the wall, Breda in a daze and nursing a smashed nose and Falman knocked out from the force of his head's Wrath-assisted collision with Breda's face. That left Hughes, Roy, Riza, Ed, Al, and Envy against Lust, Wrath, Greed, Pride, and a Gluttony who was slowly but surely coming to.

Things went well for a few minutes after that point, until Lust got tired of Riza shooting at her and impaled both of Riza's hands on her sharp talons. Riza's shocked screams distracted Roy long enough for Greed to almost land a kick to Roy's head. Fortunately, Envy noticed the impending attack and yanked hard on Greed's arm, throwing his aim off and forcing him to pay attention to his new opponent. Wrath retrieved Riza's dropped gun, took aim at Hughes, and fired. The shot hit him in the side, but didn't kill him. Wrath tried again, only to discover that the gun was empty. Angry, he hurled the weapon at the back of Hughes' head, knocking the man out instantly.

And then, without warning, a brilliant flash of light appeared and Gluttony let out a tortured cry. All heads turned to the source of the noise. Gluttony was rapidly sinking into the floor and was scrambling to get a grip on something in the hopes of pulling himself out, screaming for Lust as he did. Behind him, Isabelle lay on her stomach on the floor, teeth gritted and eyes fixed on Gluttony, hands pressed flat against the floor in front of her face. She let out a low growl as she watched Gluttony flailing for a handhold.

"She can still do alchemy!" Wrath exclaimed in horror.

Greed shook his head, then turned and raced off. "I'm out of here!" he shouted back at the others.

"I think Greed has the right idea," Pride agreed. "Homunculi! Retreat!" And they did, rather quickly. Lust stopped long enough to try to save Gluttony, but she couldn't grab him in time. He disappeared into the floor before she could even get to him. Angry and frustrated, Lust took the opportunity to stab her talons through the human girl one last time before following the others. Isabelle watched the floor just long enough to make sure Gluttony was really gone, then her head dropped and her whole body seemed to deflate a little. All was still for a moment, then Envy rushed to her side, rolled her onto her back, and carefully lifted her into his arms.

"Isabelle…" he breathed softly.

Her eyes fluttered open. "Hey you."

"Oh god…I'm so sorry…this is all my fault, every bit of it! I should have told you right from the start…"

"William. It's ok…I forgive you."

Envy sniffled. "You do?"

"Yeah," Isabelle whispered back, forcing a smile. "You had no real choice. I'm just…I'm just glad I got to meet you." With that, her eyes fluttered shut.

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Yes, I am an evil authoress. But if you want to find out what happens, you gotta review...I might even post the next chapter tonight if you do! 


	15. Chapter 15

Well, I promised to try to post again today, and since I'm the type to keep my promises, here's another chapter for you all! The trade-off is that there might not be a new chapter tomorrow, because I have a research presentation due and it's not finished yet...erm...yeah. Anyway, enjoy and review!

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**Chapter 15**

"Isabelle? Isabelle? C'mon, open your eyes again. You can't die on me here, you can't! Isabelle? Please don't die please…I love you…" Envy's voice trailed off into a whisper as he clung to Isabelle, who made no sign that she had heard a single word he said.

"Al, how quickly do you think one of us could get out of here and get help?" Ed murmured to his brother.

The younger Elric shook his head sadly. "Not fast enough, Nii-san."

"That's what I was afraid of," Ed replied.

"There's no way to save her with alchemy?" Riza asked from where she had sunk down against the wall, nursing her injured hands.

Ed shook his head sadly. "I don't know how. I don't think I can even help you, Riza"

"I'm going back to the base anyway," Al said firmly. "We're going to need help for everyone." And with that, he too left, heading back the way they had come as quickly as his armor would allow. Ed set about creating bandages for the others while Envy tried frantically to revive Isabelle. But it wasn't working, as was made evident by his increasingly hysterical-sounding voice when he called to her.

Ed had just began bandaging Riza's hands and Envy had officially given up on reviving Isabelle, settling for clutching her injured body to his chest and sobbing, when the double doors at the end of the hall opened once again. Ed and Riza looked up, staring. "It can't be Al already…" Riza said

And indeed it wasn't Al. There, standing quietly and studying the scene before him, was a man Ed hadn't seen in years but would have been able to pick out from a crowd in an instant.

"Dad!" he exclaimed. Behind him, Envy made a sort of strangled choking sound and twisted around to see the new arrival. Carefully, gently, he set Isabelle back on the ground, brushing his fingers lightly across her bruised cheek before standing. He just stood there shaking for a moment, then, without warning, turned and attacked Hohenheim.

"You fucking _bastard_! What are you _thinking_ showing your face around here? Wonderful timing as usual, showing up just as she's about to _die_!!"

Hohenheim allowed Envy to attack him, and sure enough Envy lost his energy pretty quickly. He just stood there, panting and glaring at Hohenheim, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"William, I'm sorry "

"Like _hell_ you are," Envy spat. "You're no more sorry now than you were when you turned me into this…this…_thing_ that I am now!"

"On the contrary," Hohenheim replied sadly, "I was very sorry then, and I'm very sorry now. Do you honestly think I wanted such a thing to happen to my own son? Had I known, I would never have tried the transmutation."

"_son_?" Ed hissed. "Envy's my brother?"

Either they didn't hear him, or they chose to ignore him, for they continued their conversation without Ed's involvement. Envy grabbed Hohenheim's coat front and dragged him over to where Isabelle lay dying on the floor. "Fine then. Here's your chance to make amends. Show me how sad you are, Father! Trade your life for hers!"

The taller Elric smiled sadly down at his Homunculus son. "That's not possible, I'm afraid. You see, there's no one here besides me who can perform the necessary transmutation. I would gladly give my life for her, but you can't perform alchemy anymore and Edward doesn't know the process for this sort of healing transmutation."

Envy just stared at him in silence, a series of unreadable expressions flashing across his face. Finally, he knelt, gathered Isabelle in his arms, and declared, "Fine then. Use my life and my experiences to save hers. Surely the great Hohenheim of Light can manage that."

"You're sure that's what you want, William?"

Envy glared at him. "I love her. Don't question me about what I want for her."

Hohenheim nodded and readjusted his glasses. "Very well then. Edward, I'll need your help for this, please. I need to draw a transmutation circle. This is a very complex procedure, after all, and you can help me draw it more quickly than I can draw it on my own." He pulled two sticks of chalk from his pocket and held them out to Edward, who nodded, walked over, and took one. Hohenheim set Ed to work drawing the basic components of the circle, while he himself filled in the more complicated details. Envy sat off to the side, rocking Isabelle and crying silently while he watched them. Finally, Hohenheim stood, surveyed their work, and gave a satisfied nod. "It's ready."

By this time the others were beginning to come to, and everyone watched in silence as Envy gracefully rose to his feet, still clutching Isabelle, and carried her to the center of the transmutation circle. There he knelt, huddled protectively over her, while Hohenheim motioned for Ed to stand back and knelt at the edge of the circle. He shrugged out of his long coat and pushed it aside, rolled up his sleeves, and closed his eyes for a moment in silent meditation before giving a firm nod. Opening his eyes, Hohenheim clapped his hands sharply and pressed down on the outer edge of the transmutation circle.

Instantly, the room was filled with a swirling wind that reminded Ed very much of what had happened during his own failed attempt at human transmutation. He watched, transfixed, as the same golden light erupted around Envy and Isabelle in the center of the circle. But the expected switch from gold to dark red, blue, and purple never happened. Rather, the golden light kept getting brighter and brighter, seeming to spread from the circle's center out to its edges. Ed squinted hard, trying to keep his eyes on Envy and Isabelle, but it was no use. He raised his arm to shield his eyes, and not a moment too soon. When he did so, the light reached its brightest level and seemed to envelope the entire room. Ed felt a wave of warmth wash over him like a summer breeze, and then…and then…

Silence.

Darkness.

Followed by a sharp gasp from one of Ed's companions. "Where'd he go?" Havoc's voice asked.

"My god…" Roy whispered by way of reply.

"Are…are they alive?" Riza added.

Ed dropped his arm and blinked, turning his gaze back on the transmutation circle. As he had expected, there were two figures lying on the ground. Also as expected, one of them was Isabelle, lying still and silent in the center of the circle, her injuries apparently gone. But the second figure…

"Envy?" Ed whispered. He slowly made his way to the center of the circle and knelt down beside the figure beside Isabelle, carefully taking his shoulder and rolling him onto his back. For the most part, it looked like Envy. He had the same pale skin, wild green hair, and slender figure. He still wore Envy's midriff top, skort, wrist and ankle wraps, and headband. But there were differences. His skin had a touch of color in it, his hair no longer resembled a palm tree as closely as it had before, and the triangle of red dots had vanished from his headband. Ed frowned at that and turned to look down at Envy's thigh, searching for the Ouroborus mark. But it wasn't there. Ed frowned and pushed Envy onto his side once again, looking for the three red circles that had once marked his back, but they were gone too. At that discovery, he pressed his fingers to Envy's wrist, and gasped. A pulse. Envy was indeed still alive. But how? And where was Hohenheim?

"Ed," Roy said from behind him. "Look at this"

Ed turned to see Roy hunched over Hohenheim's coat, holding up a white envelope. The younger alchemist stood and joined Roy, taking the envelope from him and opening it. His eyes widened as he read.

_To my sons, William (Envy), Edward, and Alphonse,  
And also to the woman called the Shadow Alchemist, whose name I am afraid I do not yet know --_

_I sincerely hope the four of you can forgive me for…well, everything. There is, after all, so much that needs to be forgiven. Edward and Alphonse, you had to grow up without a father because of my mistakes. I want you to know that, when I met your mother, I had never intended to leave her side at any time. My resolve in that intention was only strengthened with each of your births. Unfortunately, time and fate mocked my promise, and I was forced to leave and attempt to set the mistakes of my past right. You see, I am much older than either of you know (though I assure you that your mother knew the truth about me). I was born over four hundred years ago, in this place you now call Central City. As an adult, I loved another woman, and we had a son together. It was his death that resulted in the creation not only of the first Homunculus, but also in the creation of the first Philosopher's Stone. I know that you two have been searching for the Stone, but please stop now. The Stone requires the sacrifice of thousands of human lives, and is hardly the solution you wanted. But William's mother and I were determined to live on with our son, not realizing that he (as a Homunculus) would live forever. Eventually the woman became greedy and wished to live for the sake of living. I became determined to continue living as well, in the hopes of lessening any damage she might do with my own skills. In doing so I failed William, the two of you, and your mother Trisha (the only woman I ever loved enough to marry). I hope that you can understand my difficulties and forgive me my errors. Now, with hindsight, I am able to see every mistake that was made and how they could have been prevented. Unfortunately, hindsight is often perfect, whereas when we are actually making the decisions that will influence our lives and the lives of others forever, we do not have that benefit and in fact must often make our decisions with our vision clouded by emotions and incomplete knowledge._

_William, you were forced to become something you never wanted, all because you mother and I simply could not accept your untimely death. What parent can ever easily accept the death of a child, even if that child is an adult at the time, and even if that child died in the service of others? I do not know if you recall, but you died of mercury poisoning after one of the implements you were using to try to save your fellow humans from the deadly Plague broke and you somehow ingested the mercury in it. No one ever determined exactly how it happened, I'm afraid. But I, foolish mortal and proud alchemist that I was, decided that we could simply bring you back through human transmutation. Even in those times, before we knew what would result from a failed transmutation, the leaders in the alchemical community advised against the attempt. I did not listen, and because of my pride and stubbornness you have spent centuries suffering. And then, somehow, you decided that if you had to suffer, others did too. I was devastated. When had my beautiful son, once a marvelous artist and compassionate being whose sole desire in life was to help others live, become such a monster? I knew the answer, of course. I had made you that way when I failed the transmutation. But for so long I refused to admit it. Imagine my terror when I discovered that you had begun allowing a young woman to have access to my old texts -- my terror that something horrible was going to happen to her, that she was about to become a victim in your latest dastardly plot. Imagine then my joy when I discovered that this was not that case, and that in fact you were regaining some shred of humanity because of her presence. And imagine my joy when the solution suddenly became quite clear to me, thanks to her research (this, then, is what I have to beg her forgiveness for: one night while you were out I snuck into the house to see her work, and decided to see if she was awake to talk to me. I believe I frightened her quite badly)._

_You see, William, she has discovered the mistake made by everyone who has ever attempted a human transmutation -- the assumption that all it takes to bring a person back from the dead is the simple creation of a new body, followed calling back the sould and attaching it to that body. But as we have all discovered, it's not that's simple. For to create something, you must give something of equal value. But what is of equal value to a human life? Another human life? But no two humans have the same life. Therefore, it takes more than one human life to create (or revive) another human life. The woman you love discovered this, and it is thanks to her that I have been able to do what I have done today. I have used my own life, plus some of the time and experiences you have had in the past four hundred years, to return you to a human state. I do not know if you will retain any of your Homunculus characteristics. I only hope that this will atone for my previous sins against you._

_Edward, Alphonse, I understand that you have been searching for a way to regain your true bodies. Enclosed, please find some information that I think will help you. The Shadow Alchemist will be able to give you some insight as well, I believe. Her theory is perfect, and, with my actions today, has been tested. I do hope it has been proven right._

_Please remember that I love you all, and wish you the very best in life --_

_Hohenheim Elric_

Ed sniffled and swiped furiously at his eyes, but it was no use. He blinked a few times and finally settled for wiping the tears from his cheeks. He looked up at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder and found Roy there, giving him a brave look. Ed managed a watery smile. "He saved them both."

"So that's what happened," Roy murmured, turning his attention to the two people resting in the circle. "When do you think they'll wake up?"

Ed shook his head. "I don't know. Soon, I hope. I want to make sure they're alright." He squeezed the note, crinkling a bit. "And I want Envy to read this. He really needs to."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

As it turned out, Isabelle and Envy didn't wake up until the next day. By that time, they had been carried out of the underground city on stretchers and brought to the hospital, along with their injured comrades. Isabelle was the first to wake up. It took Ed a good twenty minutes to explain everything that had happened to her, but she refused to believe any of it, even after he showed her Hohenheim's note (though she did find the rest of his instructions interesting). Rather, she demanded more proof in the form of a living Envy, whom she kept calling William.

The doctor finally declared her healthy enough to leave if she wanted, and she followed Ed to the room down the hall where they were keeping Envy. Roy was there, watching over the other man and studiously avoiding paperwork. Envy himself was lying under the sheet, asleep, his wild green hair fanned out on the pillow beneath his head. His normal ensemble of headband, midriff top, and skort were gone, replaced by a standard-issue white hospital gown. Except for the hint of color in his skin that hadn't been there before, he looked normal.

Well, sort of, anyway.

"Has he always really looked like that?" Isabelle whispered to Ed.

Ed nodded. "In this form anyway. But he probably never let you see him like that."

She shook her head. "No, William always looked very different."

"William never existed, you know," Ed pointed out. "He was always Envy."

"That's not what your father's letter says," Isabelle replied, taking the letter from Ed and waving it at him. "Your father called him William. I think he's always been William, but he didn't want to admit it so he hid behind Envy."

A quiet groan from the bed interrupted any answer Ed might have given. Isabelle dropped the letter and rushed to Envy's side, perching on the edge of the bed and gently stroking the back of his hand. Envy opened his eyes and blinked a few times, then tilted his head to look at Isabelle. "Hey, you're alive."

Isabelle grinned. "So are you."

"Strangely enough," Ed mumbled. Isabelle turned to glare at him and Roy hissed sharply, holding a finger to his lips to signal for quiet. Ed just rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Yes, about that…why am I still here?" Envy asked. "And why do I feel like shit?"

Isabelle leaned forward to run her fingers through his hair, then though better of it when they got tangled in the wild locks and instead settled for stroking his cheek. "Apparently your father did sacrifice his own life for us…and he found a way to make you human again."

"He _what_?" the former Homunculus asked, struggling into a sitting position.

Ed cleared his throat and extended his hand to Envy, offering him the letter. Envy took it and read it, violet eyes flying back and forth over the page. "So wait…can I still…" Without waiting for an answer, he closed his eyes. A flash of light later and Envy was no longer sitting on the hospital bed. Instead, his spot had been filled by the man Isabelle knew as William. Another flash and Isabelle found herself staring at her double. A third flash brought them the Homunculus Lust, and the final one brought Envy back to his normal state.

"That's one way to use alchemy, I suppose," Roy commented.

Envy eyed the letter suspiciously. "Think I can use alchemy like regular alchemists again?"

"I think so," Ed replied.

"Yes," Isabelle countered. "You're human again. And you just did use alchemy, without a transmutation circle or anything."

"William Elric, aka Envy, aka many other names, continues the Elric family tradition of being able to use alchemy without drawing a transmutation circle first," he said dryly, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Please, no family histories," Roy groaned. "We get enough of that from Armstrong."

"Right," Envy replied. "I'm not that sentimental anyway. So, when do we get out of here?"

"As soon as the doctors say you can leave," Isabelle replied.

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The next few weeks were a blur for everyone involved. Envy kept wandering around performing random transmutations just because he could. Isabelle and Ed shut themselves up in the library and threw themselves into the last few bits of research assigned in Hohenheim's letter. Al alternated between hiding in the library with them (attempting to avoid Envy and his constant transmutations) and following Envy around to make sure he didn't destroy the house. Isabelle finally got tired of all the noise and activity coming from the man she loved and set him to work moving anything in the underground city that looked like it might be useful, then had him seal off all known entrances to the city.

And then, finally, the work was finished. It turned out that Isabelle's only contribution to the effort would be in her role as a researcher, for Ed and Al had to perform the delicate transmutations themselves. But Isabelle helped them create the theory and the circles they would need, and they were confident it would work. So when the day came for Ed to perform the transmutation to bring Al's normal body back, Isabelle joined Envy on the sidelines, ready to jump in and save the brothers at a moment's notice. They were dear friends to her -- no way she was letting anything happen to them.

The first thing Ed did was create the new body. That was easy enough, honestly. A lifeless, soulless human body could be created from a series of ingredients that Ed had long ago memorized. So they decided on what Al would most likely look like at fourteen or fifteen and Ed created the body based on that. Then, it was time for the hard part -- attaching Al's soul to the new body. That was where Isabelle's research came in handy. Ed had to be able to give something up in order to complete the transmutation, but he didn't want to lose another limb. Instead, he settled on some experiences and memories he would be willing to give up (in whole or in part) to return his brother to normal. Somehow, though they had yet to figure out why, this was a perfectly reasonable trade.

And so it was that, in the early morning hours of a warm, sunny July day in Central City, Alphonse Elric's soul left the suit of armor that had been its body for the past five years and once again found itself firmly lodged in a real human body -- his body.

And so it was also that, a few days later, having recovered his own strength and energy, Alphonse Elric used alchemy to transmute his brother's automail limbs (with the addition of a few other needed ingredients) into normal flesh-and-blood limbs, just like the ones Edward has lost in their failed transmutation attempt so many years ago.

And so it was that things went back to normal in Central City. Well, as normal as they ever got, anyway.

Sort of.

To be honest, things were actually quite abnormal in Central City in the months that followed.

At the end of July, Envy swept into the kitchen of his house and interrupted Isabelle in her latest attempt to teach Ed and Al the basics of cooking something other than boxed and canned foods with the announcement, "I'm going to do it!"

"That's nice, love," Isabelle replied distractedly as she tried to show Ed how to adjust the temperature on the stove so his nice tomato sauce wouldn't burn and stick to the pot.

"What are you going to do?" Al asked, breaking a handful of spaghetti and dropping it into the pot of boiling water. "Oh no…Isabelle, I think I forgot the oil!"

Isabelle poured some oil into the pot. "It's ok, just stir that around well so the spaghetti doesn't stick."

"Are any of you paying any attention to me at all?" Envy asked somewhat petulantly.

Isabelle sighed. "Love, I'm trying to keep Ed from destroying your dinner."

"Hey! I'm not that bad at cooking!" Ed growled.

"Actually, Nii-san, you are," Al replied as he stirred the spaghetti serenely.

"_Anyway_," Envy interjected as the brothers glared at each other, "I've decided that I'm going to become just like the Isabelle and Ed here."

"Short, you mean?" Isabelle said. "Because Ed's not fat and I'm not blonde," she added over Ed's shouts of something about fleas and glasses.

Envy snorted. "Of course not! If I did that I'd just have to change later. Ed's getting taller, you know."

"There, see?"

"Quiet you. Mind your cooking." Isabelle turned back to Envy and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well?"

"I'm going to become a State Alchemist!"

"_What_???" the three cooks exclaimed. The smell of burning tomato sauce snapped Ed out of his shock long enough for him to turn his burner off and pour the unburned portion of the sauce into a bowl.

Envy grinned. "Well, why not?" he asked. "I've been practicing! And there's plenty of time for me to study."

"How about because you used to be an enemy of the state?" Ed asked sarcastically. "They might not want to let a former Homunculus in."

"Nii-san has a point," Al agreed, a hint of regret in his voice. "If it was anyone else but you, I'd say you had a chance. But it's you, Envy."

The green-haired man waved his hand dismissively. "Roy says he thinks it won't matter. He said my actions during that battle will look good on my record."

"Well…" Isabelle said, eyeing the sauce doubtfully, "I suppose, if it's really what you want to do…I can help you study."

And so it was that Ed and Isabelle found themselves helping Envy study to be a State Alchemist. In November, Al decided that he wanted to try again too, and threw himself into studying alongside his older half-brother. Things were thus fairly quiet for them until February, when the four of them made their way to the base in Central City for the first day of the test. Ed and Isabelle waited outside, pacing around nervously, until Envy and Al emerged from the written portion of the exam. Al looked tense, but Envy just breezed past, calling to the others over his shoulder to see what they wanted to do about lunch. The following day came the interviews and Envy's turn to be nervous. Al had a normal body once again, but Envy harbored fears that his past as a Homunculus would haunt him. Somehow, though, they both managed to pass that part of the test as well (though Envy emerged looking ready to collapse). Then, finally, it was the third day -- the day of the practical portion of the exam. Isabelle and Ed were silent while they waited for the others, each remembering their own practical exams.

It was almost two hours later when three figures left the main building and approached Isabelle and Ed where they sat on the stone steps. Envy and Al followed Roy Mustang, who stopped before his two subordinates and planted his hands on his hips.

"I hope you two know how to throw a good party."

"Huh?" They both said, looking up. Isabelle's eyes darted to Envy's face. Beneath his wild hair, his face was an unreadable mask, except for the hint of a mischievous sparkle in his violet eyes.

Roy grinned and waved to his companions. "Ed, Isabelle, meet your new co-workers: Amestris's newest State Alchemists."

Ed and Isabelle stared up at Roy, then turned to each other and smiled. For the next several minutes the air around Central City's military base was filled with the cheers and laughter of five happy State Alchemists.

* * *

Hmm...just one more chapter to go! And then, if it seems like enough people want me to, I'll be getting to work on a sequel... 


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17 -- Two Months Later**

The first day of April also turned out to be the sunniest and warmest day of the year so far. A few bits of snow had managed to hang around until then, but they melted away quickly in the day's heat. In some ways, that made Isabelle a very happy woman -- she had very few happy memories involving snow and was always glad to see the stuff gone. On the other hand, if the snow could have held out just a little longer, the ground beneath the picnic blanket on which she sat would have been less soggy, and her rump would have been drier as a result. Not that she minded too much, though. It had been just under a year since the fateful picnic that had ended in her and Envy's first kiss, and since they were both going to be off on separate missions on the actual anniversary, this was the day they had chosen to celebrate.

"I need to take you on picnics more often," Envy's voice came from beside and slightly below her. Isabelle turned to find him lying on the blanket, twirling a half-full wine glass between two delicate fingers and staring at her with a piercing violet gaze.

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Because I've noticed that being outdoors just makes you even more beautiful."

Isabelle raised an eyebrow, the corners of her mouth twitching as she fought a smile. "Is that so? Well, then, we better move to a warmer climate so we can be outdoors more often."

Envy chuckled. "We'd have to leave our jobs, though."

"Fine. We can live off the fortune your father left you."

"Hmm, we could actually manage that. He left me quite a lot."

"There, see?" Isabelle said, lying down on her side and smiling at Envy. "It would be nice to get out of the city for a while."

"I guess that just means we have to have a long honeymoon."

"Yeah, that would be…" Isabelle frowned. "Er…honeymoon?"

"Yes," Envy replied, grinning. "You know, that trip thing people go on after they get married?"

Isabelle blinked at him, then sat up again and looked around as though searching for the hidden camera that would snap a picture of her shocked face when Envy announced that he was joking. But there was no camera in sight, and Envy wasn't saying a word. In fact, he looked perfectly serious. "Married?"

"Well, only if you agree to it, of course. Which I hope you will. I just spent a huge amount on a ring. And beside…I love you more than anything or anyone in the world. I can't imagine my life without you. So…please marry me?"

She turned to look back at him, unsure of what she was going to say. This was the last thing she'd been expecting, after all. But then, her eyes fell on his face. On the hopeful look there, on the way the light shone off his love-filled eyes, and she quickly came to a conclusion -- there was no way she could live without him either. She let her eyes linger on his for a moment before she nodded and smiled. Envy pushed himself up and pulled her close, kissing her passionately.

_The Morning of August 5th -- At Envy's House_

"Al! Come one, we're going to be late!" Ed shouted, trying to rush down the stairs and button his shirt cuff at the same time.

"Relax, Ed. They can't start without me, and since you're going with me, it won't matter," Envy's voice came from the sitting room. This announcement was followed by an annoyed sigh. "Edo-chibi, I don't think this suit look is working on me."

Envy emerged from the sitting room a moment later, a sour look on his face. His normally wild green hair had been brushed smooth and pulled back in a low ponytail, where it was held back by a lavender-colored satin ribbon. He wore a black tuxedo, the jacket open to reveal a crisp white dress shirt and a satin vest of the same color as his hair ribbon. Ed looked him up and down, then turned at the sound of Al's footsteps coming down the stairs.

"I don't think he looks so bad, do you?"

Al stopped and took a look at Envy. "Not at all, Nii-san! He looks great!"

"Alright, then, let's go!" Ed exclaimed, yanking the door open and waving the others through. "Isabelle's probably already there, wondering where we are"

_ The Morning of August 5th -- At Riza's Apartment_

Riza made a final adjustment to Isabelle's veil, then stepped back to admire her work. Behind her, Sheska and Winry nodded their happy approval of the bride. Isabelle's gown was like a ball gown (though the skirt wasn't quite as full), the bodice covered in delicately-embroidered flowers accented with small crystals and pearls. The veil flowed almost to the floor, and was held in place over her long brown hair with a thin silver circlet made to look like a vine of flowers and leaves.

"You look so beautiful," Winry whispered.

Isabelle's answer was interrupted by the sound of sharp pounding on the door. "Come on!" Roy's voice shouted. "We're going to be late!"

"I can't be late to my own wedding!" Isabelle shouted back, but she did take the hint. Winry rushed to her side and handed her the long satin gloves that went with her gown. Isabelle pulled them on, then grabbed her bouquet and followed Riza and Sheska out the door, Winry on her heels making sure the gown's short train didn't get caught on anything. Roy met them on the other side of the door, where he extended his arm to Isabelle and escorted the small party down the stairs and out the front door. There, they were met by Falman and Breda, each waiting with a car to carry them to the fanciest hotel in the city, where the wedding was to take place. Isabelle and Roy settled into the car driven by Falman, while Sheska, Riza, and Winry joined Breda.

"Are you ready for this?" Roy asked.

Isabelle thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. "I think so."

Roy patted her gloved hand and gave her a comforting smile. "You are. I can tell. Oh, but I do have to ask you again…when are you due?"

Isabelle turned to Roy, mouth open in shock. "I...I...Roy, what the hell makes you think that question's any more polite now than it was when I met you?"

Roy laughed. "That's not what I mean this time, though."

"Oh?"

"Indeed. I was actually asking about a promotion. I've been hearing rumors from the higher-ups that you're due for one, and I was wondering if you'd heard anything yet."

Isabelle just gawked at him all the way to the hotel.

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"Ladies and gentlemen!" Hughes' voice rang through hotel's ornate entry hall. The gathered crowd turned their attention to him and moved closer to the grand staircase, where he stood a few steps up so that he could be seen above the crowd. "Preeeeeeeeeeeesenting…"

"If it's a giant picture of his kid I'm going to kill him," Havoc muttered, eliciting chuckles from the guests surrounding him.

"…the happy couple!" Hughes finished with a flourish, making a hasty retreat down the stairs and getting out of the way. Envy and Isabelle emerged from the hallway at the top of the stairs, arm in arm, and slowly made their way down to the step that Hughes had just vacated. They stood there for a couple of minutes, grinning down at the cheering crowd and looking utterly embarrassed by the all attention. Hughes climbed up a couple of steps and started directing the crowd again, calling the women forward so Isabelle could toss the bouquet. They pressed forward, and Isabelle covered her eyes and tossed the bouquet, not opening her eyes until she heard the clapping and playful teasing from the crowd. She opened her eyes and laughed at the sight of a blushing Riza Hawkeye standing at the foot of the stairs and staring down at the bouquet as though it was a highly confusing report. A little more crowd wrangling from Hughes brought the gathered men forward so Envy could toss a garter to them. Moments after Envy's toss, a whistle drew everyone's attention to Roy, who was proudly waving the garter over his head.

Isabelle shook her had and smiled up at Envy. "Time for us to go," she whispered.

"Agreed," Envy replied, planting a quick kiss on her cheek before leading her down the stairs.

They made their way to the car Havoc, Fuery, Falman, and Breda had decorated just for the event. There was a moment of stress at one point when Envy seemed to forget every one of the driving lessons Fuery had so kindly given him over the past few months, but once he got over that they were ready to be off. As Isabelle hugged all of her friends, Envy shook his younger half-brothers' hands.

"Just remember to stay out of trouble," Al teased.

"And keep brushing your hair, it looks much better this way," Ed added dryly.

Envy rolled his eyes, then narrowed them a bit and scrutinized Ed. "Hey, chibi-san…is it just me or have you gotten taller?" He raised his hand to the top of Ed's head and pretended to measure him, then let out a dramatic sigh. "Ah, it was just my imagination. Never mind." With that, and ignoring Ed's shouted protests, Envy settled into the driver's seat while Riza helped Isabelle into the passenger side. The crowd quickly backed out of the car's path (all except for the still-shouting Ed, who had to be dragged out of the way by Al and Roy) and waved cheerfully as the car made its way to the road and eventually vanished in the distance.

"Well, that's it," Riza said nostalgically.

"They're going to have an interesting life," Roy added, absent-mindedly swinging the garter around the tip of his finger.

"Mm," Riza agreed, glancing down at the bouquet she held. "I love weddings. I wonder when the next one will be."

"I wonder who it'll be," the Colonel replied.

At that instant, they both happened to glance up, and their eyes met. They gazed at each other for a long moment, then both blushed furiously and quickly turned away.

"Geez," Fuery hissed from his spot behind them on the steps leading to the hotel entrance, where he was standing with the others and spying on the pair before them. "Those two are so in denial."

"No kidding," Hughes whispered back. "How long have they been dating now? And living together? They need to get over this public shyness. Roy needs a wife!"

Breda and Havoc nodded. "On the other hand," Falman said, "I do think they're starting to figure it out…ten thousand sens says they're engaged within the month."

"Nah, I say two months," Hughes said.

"Ten weeks," Breda grunted.

"It's not going to take Mustang that long. One week tops," Havoc put in.

"Yeah, but it's Hawkeye. I say six weeks at least," Fuery countered.

The five friends degenerated into good-natured bickering at that point, while Ed, Winry, and Al began seeing the rest of the guests off and Roy and Riza stood around trying to flirt while at the same time trying to avoid actually looking at one another. And so ended a very special and unusual day in Central City…and so began a special and unusual era.

* * *

It's over! Well, for now...the sequel is in the works and I'll start posting it once I'm sure I'll actually finish it. But in the meantime, everyone, thanks for reading, and special thanks to my reviewers and watchers. Remember, reviews for this chapter just make me want to write the sequel more! 


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